Women, Islam and Everyday Life: Renegotiating Polygamy in Indonesia »

Nina Nurmila is a lecturer at the Faculty of Islamic Education and Teaching, 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.

This book examines Islam and women’s everyday life, focusing in particular on the highly controversial issue of polygamy. It discusses the competing interpretations of the Qur’anic verses that are at the heart of Muslim controversies over polygamy, with some groups believing that Islam enshrines polygamy as a male right, others seeing it as permitted but discouraged in favour of monogamy, and other groups arguing that Islam implicitly prohibits polygamy. Based on detailed fieldwork conducted in Indonesia, it provides an empirically-based account of women’s lived experiences in polygamous marriages, describing the different perceptions of the practice and strategies in dealing with it. It also considers the impact of changing public policy, in particular Indonesia’s 1974 Marriage Law which restricted the practice of polygamy. It shows that, in fact, this law has not resulted in widespread adherence, and considers how public policy could be modified to increase its effectiveness in affecting behaviour in everyday life. Overall, the book argues that polygamy has been a source of injustice towards women and children, that this is against Islamic teaching, and that a just Islamic law would need to call for the abolition of polygamy.

List of illustrations xi

Series editor's foreword xii

Acknowledgments xiii

Glossary xvii

1 Introduction 1

Muslim feminist as researcher 11

Brief outline of chapters 19

2 Polygamy in context: family and kinship 21

Women's situation in Java 22

Changing patterns of marriage and family structure in Indonesia 28

Feminist critiques of the family 33

Conclusion 37

3 Muslim discourses on polygamy in Indonesia 39

What is shari'a? 40

Muslim interpretations of polygamy 42

The history of the 1974 Marriage Law 45

The New Order government regulations on marriage and divorce for civil servants 58

The promotion of polygamy in the post-Soeharto period 64

Conclusion 77

4 Reactions to and negotiation around polygamous marriages 78

Accommodating polygamy (the Textualists) 81

Resisting polygamy (the Semi-textualists) 92

Rejecting polygamy (the Contextualists) 103

Varying degrees of women's acceptance of and resistance to polygamy 108

5 Polygamous households 115

Relationship between wives in polygamous marriages 116

Polygamous husbands' treatments of their wives 120

The celebration of important days 131

Attending wedding ceremonies and official parties 132

Economic management in polygamous households 133

The influence of polygamy on children's emotional and economic well-being 138

A bargain with patriarchy and settling for polygamy 143

5 Conclusion 146

Qur'an is divine, while its interpretation is human 146

The need for a contextual approach in reading the Qur'an 148

Notes 155

References 174

Index 195