160 islam, politics and change
5.3 Recent Legal Developments, Human Rights and Gender Notions:
Judicial Review to Protect the Rights of Women and Children
Gender and women’s rights activists affiliated to a number of institutions
and ngos, such as Rahima, Fahmina, Puan Amal Hayati, the Komnas
Perempuan (Women’s National Commission), and the lbh apik (Legal
Aid Centre for Women), have struggled to improve women’s legal status.
They have directed their activism not just at the state, but also at their
own Islamic communities. As White notes, they have sought to change
gender attitudes at both the intellectual and the grassroots level.⁵⁶ They
hold seminars to disseminate ideas on gender equality and to challenge
traditional interpretations of Islamic teaching, and they train men and
women to be ‘gender sensitive’ in their actions and ideals.⁵⁷ With the
same aim, they also publish journals focusing on gender issues. In doing
so, they attempt to contribute to the public debate and public policy on
women and gender issues.
Among the significant attempts made by these women’s rights
activists were the proposal for a Counter Legal Draft of the Kompilasi
and a proposal for a law on the elimination of domestic violence.
Unfortunately the Counter Legal Draft was dismissed. Its provisions were
too controversial.⁵⁸ The draft on the elimination of domestic violence
was issued in 2004 as Law No. 23/2004.
Recently two well-known Indonesian women have sought judicial
review in response to what they consider to be a gender bias and the
subordination of women in the decisions of judges. One judicial review is
sought by Halimah, the ex-wife of Bambang Trihatmojo, one of the sons
of former President Suharto. She felt that she had been treated unfairly
in court after she rejected her husband’s petition to divorce her on the
grounds of continuous dispute. She believed that the decision made by
the religious court to approve her husband’s petition had no appropriate
legal basis and had harmed and subordinated her. She therefore appealed.
at an Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace, dated 11 August 2006,
http://www.icrp-online.org (accessed 25 October 2012).
Sally White and Maria Ulfah Anshor, ‘Islam and Gender in Contemporary
Indonesia’, 139.
See ibid. See also Arskal Salim,Demi Keadilan dan Kesetaraan, 23–40, and
Burhanuddin and Oman Fathurrahman,Tentang Perempuan Islam: Wacana dan
Gerakan(Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka/ ppim, 2004), 113–152. See also a number of
policy reports written by The Asia Foundation on the programme of women’s
empowerment at http://asiafoundation.org/.
See Euis Nurlaelawati,Modernization, Tradition, and Identity, 125–130. See also
White and Anshor, ‘Islam and Gender in Contemporary Indonesia’, 146.