Engineer, and Amina Wadud Muhsin had stimu-
lated Indonesian Muslims to think more deeply
about women’s issues, leading to new understand-
ings of gender. This was supported by Ulumul
Qur±an, a new Indonesian journal dedicated exclu-
sively to the discussion of various issues concerning
Islam, including gender. In 1989, it published an
article by Yvonne Haddad on the image of Eve in
the Qur±àn. This article was received positively by
its readers. A year later, it published an article by
Riffat Hassan on women’s theology in Islamic tra-
dition which also evoked positive responses. This is
the period when Indonesian Muslims came into
contact for the first time with the concept of gender
in a very broad sense. More female and male intel-
lectuals realized that gender equality was the most
important aim to be realized. They held various dis-
cussions and seminars, and undertook research and
training concerning this issue. The number of
Muslim students exploring gender as their research
project grew significantly in Muslim campuses in
the country. Some of them went on to become
women or gender activists.
A number of key figures, among them Lies
Marcoes-Natsir and Farha Ciciek, have played a
great role in socializing and disseminating gender
and women’s issues to a wider Muslim community,
especially students. They represent the first genera-
tion of Indonesian Muslim women who are seeking
rationalization of gender from religious perspec-
tives. Despite challenges from conservative Muslim
groups, they dedicate their lives to the issues sur-
rounding gender and are positively reinforced by
younger fellow Muslims. Among young Muslim
intellectuals emerging from the 1990s are Nurul
Agustina, Ratna Batara Munti, Ala±i Najib, Syafiq
Hasyim, Ratna Megawangi, and Badriyah Fayumi.
They flourish as the second generation and, like
their predecessors, are committed to the dissemina-
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ity, Jakarta 1979.Jajang JahroniIran and AfghanistanMassive participation of Iranian women in the
1979 Islamic Revolution and women’s support for
political Islam in the 1980s have led specialists to
inquire into the reasons behind women’s participa-
tion in Islamist movements whose aim, it is argued,
is to limit women’s rights and their political, eco-
nomic, and social choice. Given the limitation
of existing research and published material on
Afghanistan this entry focuses on Iran.
In the name of religion some Islamists with a pos-
itivist approach to nature essentialize gender in-
equality, which they consider to be natural and to
originate in the divine will. They confine women to
domesticity where natural hierarchy limits the
equality between men and women. Sayyid Javàd
Mu߆afavì, an Iranian cleric and the author of a
widely read book on the family (1995), argues,
“God has created women to do the housework,
child-bearing and child-rearing. God has created
men for activities outside the home, for confronting
the hardships of life.” Likewise, in Afghanistan, the
Taliban denied women their basic rights and
secluded them from public life.
Islamists are not unanimous in limiting the role of