Indonesia’s Dr. Siti Musdah Mulia receives International Women of Courage Award

Meanwhile, Antara reports from Washington that Indonesian woman intellectual Dr Siti Musdah Mulia, last week received the International Women of Courage award from the US government for her efforts to change societal conditions in favor of women’s progress in Indonesia.  The award was presented by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice at a function at the State Department to mark World Women`s Day.
Nine other women from other countries also received the award but Dr Siti was the only recipient from the Asia Pacific region. The others were from Zimbabwe, Latvia, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Maldives, Afghanistan (two) and Iraq.

The award recipients were selected by the US embassies in the respective countries. Of the 100 names proposed, 10 women from various walks of life including academicians, physicians, journalists, politicians, women activists, were shortlisted.

Condoleeza Rice in her address on the occasion said women’s efforts to achieve equality in gender constituted a hard struggle. Even in the US, a country adhering to democracy, it took more than 130 years for women to obtain the voting right.

Meanwhile, Dr Siti told ANTARA in Washington DC she was quite surprised when the US embassy in Jakarta informed her that she had been chosen for this year’s award. She had been selected for her efforts to promote, defend or restore women’s rights from the perspective of religion through a renovation of Islamic laws, including the marriage law.

Dr Siti had proposed a number of changes in the law to ensure, among other things, equality in the positions of husband and wife, prohibition of child marriages, unofficial marriages, polygamy and the registration of all marriages. "I only wanted to see the restoration of the humanistic and women-friendly principles of Islam," she said.

Dr Siti was the first Indonesian woman to obtain a doctorate in Islamic political thinking. She works as a lecturer at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University and as senior adviser at the Religious Affairs Ministry. In 2004, Dr Siti and 10 other experts on interpretation of Islamic teachings and laws produced a counter draft to an Islamic Law Compilation which among other things covered the marriage, inheritance and donation laws. Her initiative met with resistance in the parliament and other circles so that the religious affairs minister eventually called off the compilation project.

Because of her struggle, Dr Siti had often been the target of acts of intimidation by or even death threats from certain groups of people. But the 40-year-old mother of two sons had remained undeterred and continued to fight for gender equality.

Source : Indonesia Digest #004-2007, written by Tuti Soenario. Published by TBSC-Strategic Communication