The Position of Women in the Family Law (Special Reference to Indonesia Case)

This book describes the important factors at work in religion to which women have an opportunity to contribute in their aspiration for the formulation of Islamic Law. In this book I focus primarily on theoretical issues related to the rethinking and re-contextualizing of classical Islamic sources and literary traditions about the position of women in Islam. This book deals with Islamic Law (syari'ah) and jurisprudence (fiqh), which form the elements of Islam most directly responsible for the definition of women's roles and the boundaries of women's activities in the Islamic Community. The issues of Islamic law and its interpretation is also the aspect most responsible for many contemporary problems Muslim women face daily, as conservative political Islam reinstitutes so-called "traditional" Islamic law pertaining to women and family. Cultural values related to women's sexuality, which reflected the inequality of gender, very much influenced the formulation of law in Indonesia, both secular law and Islamic law. The question of the role of religion on gender constructions in Indonesia has not been asked often enough, but is clearly of great relevance to contemporary debates, as Indonesia struggles towards a modern democratic state. However, tradition provides a sort of framework within which gender roles evolve. Family and lineage inheritance, status, and solidarity are points in the gender ideology regarding women that emerges particularly in class societies, both in rural and urban regions.