control and sexuality

Control and Sexuality: The Revival of Zina Laws in Muslim Contextswithout delay and within a clear time frame, discriminatory laws and regulations and bringthem in line with the [CEDAW]” (para 11). It also compels the Indonesian government “toreview, monitor and evaluate the implementation of local and regional laws to ensure thatthey fully comply with national human rights laws and the obligations of the State partyunder [CEDAW], so that women’s rights are fully protected throughout the country” (para 13).The incongruence of gender-discriminatory laws and by-laws with the state’s Constitutionand international human rights obligations is one of the greatest destabilising factors of theIndonesian democratic polity and of a sensitive cultural, inter- and intra-religious diversity.Not only do the political manipulations of religion and the resultant gender injusticerun contrary to the state’s elementary values, pronounced in the Pancasila, they are alsoin violation of Law 32/2004 on Regional Administration. This law is one of the primeachievements of the reformasi era; it renders the usurpation of provincial/local autonomyunlawful, as such leads to discrimination against a particular group of citizens, who, inthis case, are primarily women. Thus, those Indonesian laws and by-laws – such as severalAcehnese qanun – that promote systemic discrimination against or even criminalisation ofwomen (and some men) on the pretext of zina warrant the state’s revision or revocation ofthese laws and by-laws on a number of grounds, as a matter of utmost urgency.The reluctance of both executive and judicial branches of the Indonesian state to strike downgender discriminatory legislation reveals an acute patriarchal condition, hidden behind falsemoral and religious concerns. It is a ‘joint venture’ between otherwise incompatible secularstate ideologues and Muslim ‘reductionists’, through which they perpetuate the ideas ofmale dominance, of whichever ideological background. Thus, the two generally exclusivistideologies – that of Suharto-style secularism, which construes religion as but an auxiliarytoolkit of its politics, and that of the religious right, which considers secular elements of theIndonesian state as a temporary necessity, soon to be dismantled – have become intriguinglyreceptive to one another’s patriarchal discourses; as if those discourses stem from someancient and naturalised ‘alliance of men’, overarching any particular ideological conviction.Yet a number of developments, spearheaded, in the first place, by the country’s vividcivil society, challenge the present politico-juridical stalemate on multiple grounds. Thischapter now turns to an analysis of those strategies and activities, with a view to arrive atsome potentially salient recommendations for their further enhancements.Existing Activism for ChangeA great number of the Indonesian civil society movements are, in fact, considerably olderthan the state of Indonesia itself; at least if we assume that its nascence coincides withthe proclamation of its independence, from Dutch colonial administration, in 1945. Thewomen’s movement has been socially and politically active since the beginning of the 20 thcentury, alongside, and as an important segment of, the nationalist movement (Martyn2005:30). Its relationship with the male-dominated nation-building project, however,70