motives were not only adduced to justify the colo-
nial/imperial enterprise, but informed the drawing
of policies and practices in colonial possessions.
The role and function of women in colonized
societies was strongly influenced by religious be-
liefs and institutions. The spread and acceptance of
monotheistic religions (Islam and Christianity)
brought about the domestication or social segrega-
tion of women. Women’s morality became the tool
to shape discourses of male dominance and superi-
ority and to preserve cultural and ethnic integrity
(Lerner 1986) in the clash/encounter between insti-
tutionalized historical religions.
Historians have devoted little attention to the
effect colonial policies had on the Muslim women
in what can be referred to as the “Muslim Basin” of
Southeast Asia, the Indo-Malaysian archipelago.
The cause may be attributed to the scarce archival
information on women, in particular on those who
did not engage in some activity under colonial gov-
ernment control, such as prostitution. The silence
of the archives is, however, indicative of the dis-
continuity characterizing the social history of these
regions but also of the subjugation of women in the
colonial system. This is not the place to enter the
debate regarding the hermeneutics of Islamic law
on women and the structuring of their asymmetric
position in Islamic society vis-à-vis their male coun-
terparts (Ahmed 1992, Mernissi 1991). It suffices
to state that in areas outside the original birthplace
of Islam, Muslim religious norms and customs
tended to fuse with local popular religiousness. It
follows that it is possible that women who lived in
the fold of Islam continued to maintain their origi-
nal pre-Islamic status and role in society. The
homogenizing effect, however, of European colo-
nial policies, which aimed at homologating sub-
jected populations, overruled local customs and
divested the markers of religious boundaries of
their social significance.
It is possible, however, to infer that the policies
prompted radical changes in the status, role, and
function of Muslim women. On the basis of Islamic
law, in fact, women were endowed with a certain
degree of freedom. The Qur±àn states that women
may inherit and own property (4:6) and are recog-
nized to have rights similar to those exercised
against them by their male counterparts, although
it is stated that men have a “status above” or prece-
dence over (daraja) women (2:226). Although it
appears that darajaoccurs in the context of matters
regarding divorce (4:34–8), it is stated that men
have, however, qawwàm, that is authority, over
women since they have an obligation or moral duty
to protect and support them (Bowker 1999, 1043).64 colonialism and imperialism
In Muslim societies and communities of the Indo-
Malay archipelago the norms of Islam regulating
gender relations were generally applied matching
the role of women under local adat.
Colonial policies brought about the abrogation
of many precolonial norms and practices. In
Malaysia, in stark contrast with the policy of non-
interference in matters affecting Malay custom and
religion declared in the 1874 Pangkor Treaty, the
British enacted policies that gradually contributed
to weaken the Islamic factor in the life of the
Malays (Cowan 1961). In the courts civil servants
tended to refer to British statutory law practices in
preference to those of Sharì≠a or adat(Sadka 1968,
156). For instance in the cases of Muslim children
who were declared illegitimate by Islamic courts,
British judges made them legitimate, overruling
also the granting of custody to the father (Ahmad
1973). It follows that colonial practices weakened
the position of women in Islamic communities and
in colonial settings as a whole, inaugurating a trend
that would continue during the decolonization and
nation-building phase.
As stated earlier, women in colonial settings were
listed under the categories of either “damned
whores” or “God’s police.” The former was mainly
the reserve of native women who became concu-
bines of European settlers or prostitutes in brothels
to serve the needs of European men; the latter
encompassed the European women who came to
the colonies to protect and police male morality and
genetic integrity. The extension of the 1864
Contagious Disease Act to British colonial posses-
sions led to the registration of prostitutes and the
definition of women’s roles and responsibilities.
The act was designed not to abolish prostitution
but to place sex work in the hands of the male state
(McClintock 1995, 288–9). The Dutch imple-
mented an analogous policy in their Indonesian
possessions at the turn of the twentieth century in
an attempt to curtail the negative effects of concu-
binage (Ming 1983) and prostitution (Hesselink
1987), which, if left unchecked, posed a serious
threat to white male fertility and the propagation
and perpetuation of the white race in colonial con-
texts. The policies coincided with the arrival of
European women in the colonies, as wives of set-
tlers and officials, who had been instructed in the
mother country before departure in regard to their
role in the colony (Stoler 1991).
The regulation of sex relations and the enactment
of eugenic policies were deemed essential, if not
vital, by European colonial governments in order to
establish effective and stable rule. European moth-
erhood, consequently, came to be placed at the cen-