08 March 2007
Indonesian Woman Honored as Woman of Courage
Scholar Siti Musdah Mulia champions Islam and women’s rights
Washington -- Siti Musdah Mulia is devoted to both Islam and women’s rights – a devotion that has caused conservative Muslim groups to condemn her and radical Islamic groups to threaten her with death.
In 1997, she became the first woman to obtain a doctorate degree in the field of Islamic political thought from the State Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta. In 1999, she became the first woman to be appointed as a research professor by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.
In 2004, Mulia and a team of 11 experts completed a groundbreaking project – the Counter Legal Draft (CLD) – which is aimed at revising Indonesia’s Islamic legal code. In a recent interview with USINFO, Mulia explained that among the revisions recommended are a ban on polygamy and forced marriages, and raising the legal age of marriage for girls from 16 to 19 years old. Both changes, she said, would help prevent domestic violence and child abuse. The recommendations also called for husbands and wives to be given the same rights, she said.
Mulia proposed that the CLD revisions immediately be considered and ratified by the Indonesian parliament. But disagreements and violent protests prompted Indonesia’s minister of religious affairs to cancel the project.
The firestorm, however, has not deterred Mulia from her mission of enlightening women. “Many women are not aware of their rights,” she said.
Mulia’s steadfastness has won her recognition from the United States: On March 7 she was honored with the International Women of Courage Award.
This new award is the result of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s desire to recognize women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in promoting women’s rights and advancement.
Mulia joined nine other women who received this award at a special ceremony at the U.S. Department of State. The other awardees, drawn from Afghanistan, Argentina, Iraq, Latvia, Maldives, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe, were selected from 82 nominees submitted by U.S. embassies worldwide. (See related article.)
Mulia acknowledged that her acceptance of the U.S. award might prompt some Islamists to criticize her as being “too Western.” But she added that the Islamic tradition runs deep n her and her family – she is a graduate of an Islamic boarding school and her father and father-in-law are Islamic clerics. Winning the U.S. award, she said, is a chance for her to explain to Islamists and an international audience her fight for human rights for women.
In Indonesia, Mulia reaches out to women by having her publications translated into the 300-plus local languages commonly used in the islands within the nation, and she appears on Indonesian talk shows and before women’s organizations.
A respected scholar, Mulia is the chairwoman of Muslimat Nahdlatul Ullama (Muslimat NU), which, with more than 40 million members, is the largest Islamic social organization in Indonesia.
For more information on U.S. policies, see Women in the Global Community.
