Ahmadi Women in Resoluting Conflict: Explorations to Their Exercises of Varied Agency in Contemporary Indonesia

ICRS, Tuesday, November 13th, 2012, 13:31 WIB

In November 08, 2012, ICRS student, Nina Mariani Noor defended an interesting dissertation proposal in front of three examiners Dr. Siti Syamsiyatun (promoter), Prof. Dr. J.B. Banawiratma (promoter) and Dr. Dicky Sofjan. Nina’s dissertation proposal described Ahmadi Women in Resoluting Conflict: Explorations to Their Exercises of Varied Agency in Contemporary Indonesia.

Her research in general is an active participation from Ahmadi women in dealing with resistance that the Ahmadiyah community faces, and further on how Ahmadi women deal with the conflicts. The specific questions of her research are: 1. What are the roles of Ahmadi women in the process of conflict resolution?; 2. What are the factors that encourage Ahmadi women’s participation in conflict resolution?; 3. What kind of women’s agencies those are specific from Ahmadi women that can be regarded as best practices?; 4. How do Ahmadi women deal with conflicts against other Muslim communities in their daily lives?

Conflicts with religious background involving Ahmadiyah community are rising dramatically in the last few years. The most recent is the attack on Ahmadiyah community in Cikeusik Banten where three Ahmadis were killed. In response to that, there are two different opinions coming from Muslims on how to deal with this Ahmadiyah issue. On one side, there are demands on the banning of Ahmadiyah because of its deviancy from the mainstream Islam. On the other side, there are people who defend the existence of Ahmadiyah in Indonesia based on the religious freedom and human right reasons. These conflicts forced the state to take a permanent decision on the status of Ahmadiyah in Indonesia.

However, despite the long and multi discussions held by the Ministry of Religious Affair, there is still no decision taken by the state until today. Therefore, some local governments take their own action to deal with Ahmadiyah community in their regions. In addition to the local government’s rules which restrict Ahmadis’religious activities, Ahmadis in some areas in Indonesia still experience conflicts and violence. Ahmadis have to deal with the conflict in their everyday life.

In looking at Ahmadiyah community and their participation in conflict resolution effort like in discussion, dialogue, we can easily see Ahmadi men’s participation in the dialogue for conflict resolution efforts, but the forum lacks of women’s role. Nina tries to explain this phenomenon by further exploration about Ahmadi women who actively participate in Lajnah Imaillah. Good luck for your research Nina. (admin,che)

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