Women, Islam and Everyday Life: Renegotiating Polygamy in Indonesia

by Nurmila; Nina

• ISBN13: 9780415468022
• ISBN10: 0415468027
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-08-04
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book examines Islam and women's everyday life, focusing in particular on the highly controversial issue of polygamy. It discusses the competing Islamic interpretations of polygamy, and - based on detailed fieldwork conducted in Indonesia - women's actual experiences and perceptions of the practice, and the impact of public policy.

Author Biography

Nina Nurmila is a lecturer at the Faculty of Islamic Education and Teaching at the State Islamic University (UIN) Bandung, Indonesia. She is currently a Fulbright Visiting, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Redlands, USA. She was previously an Endeavour Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. Her research interest is Gender and Islam in Muslim societies, especially Indonesia.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. xi
Series editor's foreword	p. xii
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Glossary	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Muslim feminist as researcher	p. 11
Brief outline of chapters	p. 19
Polygamy in context: family and kinship	p. 21
Women's situation in Java	p. 22
Changing patterns of marriage and family structure in Indonesia	p. 28
Feminist critiques of the family	p. 33
Conclusion	p. 37
Muslim discourses on polygamy in Indonesia	p. 39
What is shari'a?	p. 40
Muslim interpretations of polygamy	p. 42
The history of the 1974 Marriage Law	p. 45
The New Order government regulations on marriage and divorce for civil servants	p. 58
The promotion of polygamy in the post-Soeharto period	p. 64
Conclusion	p. 77
Reactions to and negotiation around polygamous marriages	p. 78
Accommodating polygamy (the Textualists)	p. 81
Resisting polygamy (the Semi-textualists)	p. 92
Rejecting polygamy (the Contextualists)	p. 103
Varying degrees of women's acceptance of and resistance to polygamy	p. 108
Polygamous households	p. 115
Relationship between wives in polygamous marriages	p. 116
Polygamous husbands' treatments of their wives	p. 120
The celebration of important days	p. 131
Attending wedding ceremonies and official parties	p. 132
Economic management in polygamous households	p. 133
The influence of polygamy on children's emotional and economic well-being	p. 138
A bargain with patriarchy and settling for polygamy	p. 143
Conclusion	p. 146
Qur'an is divine, while its interpretation is human	p. 146
The need for a contextual approach in reading the Qur'an	p. 148
Notes	p. 155
References	p. 174
Index	p. 195
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