Lectures ‘Investigating Indonesia’: Female islamic leadership in Indonesia

Lecture ‘Female islamic leadership in Indonesia’, by David Kloos. During November Leiden University Libraries and Studium Generale organise a series of 4 lectures to accompany the exhibition Investigating Indonesia at Leiden University Library. The exhibition is part of the Asian Library Event. With this event Leiden University celebrates the development of the world’s largest research library on Indonesia and the Caribbean. The development of this Asian Library is a result of the merger between the collections of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), KITLV and the Asian collections of Leiden University Libraries.

Islamic leadership is commonly associated with men. But this view is too simplistic. In Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, women have been active as religious teachers, preachers, judges in religious courts, and leaders of Islamic political parties and associations. What impact do these women have on debates about Islam and the position of women? In recent years, observers (both inside and outside academia) have paid considerable attention to progressive Islamic organizations and the development of a ‘Muslim’ feminism’. Much less is known about the role of female leaders in more conservative religious settings. This lecture focuses on the role of female ulama (religious scholars) in the Indonesian province of Aceh, a place known historically for the strong presence of political Islam, and their stances towards the struggle for gender equality.

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