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5 Tradition Revisited: The Pesantren If women pay attention to [religious] issues concerning women, I think a new configuration will emerge.” —K. H. Abdurrahman Wahid, former president of Indonesia and former chair of NU Women Graduating “Did you notice that not one man was present during the whole graduation ceremony? No man spoke, and all the female teachers used their own names. Not once was a man’s name mentioned!” A female teacher at an Islamic boarding school (pesantren) whispered this observation in my ear around midnight after a graduation ceremony for the women students who had memorized the entire Qur’an and studied the complex science of its interpretation. The ceremony had been a glamorous event; the graduates sat on chairs decorated with golden bows. Their dresses were shiny green satin, their slippers golden. They wore the makeup of brides: fiery red lips with golden eye shadow. Their women teachers were dressed in shiny pastel outfits . The ceremony had been symbolic of the privileged position the graduates now had: they were “holders” (hafidz) of the Qur’an.1 Their mothers sat in front and stood up when their daughters’ names were called. The fathers, many of them respectable kiai, remained in the section to the right, reserved for the male guests.This was the third year that the women had been allowed to hold a public outdoor graduation ceremony. Earlier they had been forced to celebrate in a dark building that could barely hold all the guests. The students ’ main teacher, Ibu Fatma, had started the drive to transform the ceremony into an event that allowed public recognition of the great effort of the graduates. This was not a small feat in the world of pesantren, which are sometimes called “age-old and somewhat archaic” institutions.2 A great part of the transmission of the Islamic faith and knowledge for traditionalist Islam takes place in the pesantren. They form the heart of tra- 166 women of nahdlatul ulama ditionalist education and are seminal for developments within NU. They are specific to Indonesia and in the past were mostly situated in remote rural areas. Pesantren used to be considered bulwarks of conservatism, and for most of their history they had no women students. A women’s graduation ceremony in the open symbolizes the profound transformations that are taking place within the pesantren. Opening up to the world means the introduction of new ideas, new curricula, and reconfigurations of existing hierarchies and authorities. For women, studying at the pesantren provided opportunities for direct participation in scrutinizing the NU tradition, which is challenging existing hierarchies. Many of the activists in the Muslimat and Fatayat NU were trained and/or work in the pesantren. This chapter illustrates how this education helped women to participate developing their position and role within the NU in particular and Islam in general. The women teachers at the pesantren work within the enclosed environment of their own schools, but trends spread from there when graduates continue their careers in other pesantren, universities, and schools. At the same time, ideas are transmitted to a larger audience through pengajian (Qur’an lessons), publications, and the many NGOs set up by the brightest of the alumni. The two women who are the main focus in this chapter are both female teachers at a pesantren. Ibu Fatma lives in a large city and started a pesantren for female students during the 1980s in the large complex her father built. Earlier, her mother had already accepted occasional female students and so paved the way for a school. Ibu Siti set up her pesantren in a small village, also during the 1980s. The women are not related to each other and have only met in passing. In women’s circles Ibu Siti and Ibu Fatma have great influence in producing and transmitting reinterpretations of the holy texts and new ideas about the role of women. They guide their students in reflections on the many issues facing Muslim women in contemporary society. They also face an ongoing struggle to be accepted in the male pesantren world that traditionally has been filled with archaic ideas about women’s position and rights. In many pesantren, male students still recite the poem: “Woman is a devil created for man. Let us seek refuge in God from this evil devil.”3 Nobody knows exactly how much influence these women have on new developments within traditionalist Islam. Many male NU leaders do not yet consider women as equal partners. Male...

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