Bachelor thesis | South and Southeast Asian Studies (BA)
closed access
In recent years Indonesia faced some challenges with regards to feminism and Islam. Islam and feminism are two terms which are assumed to be incompatible according to the Muslim community. Before...Show moreIn recent years Indonesia faced some challenges with regards to feminism and Islam. Islam and feminism are two terms which are assumed to be incompatible according to the Muslim community. Before the start of the Jokowi-era in 2014 the Indonesian feminist movement was gradually taking place and Indonesian Islam was modestly acquainted with feminism. This progressive spirit reached its peak with the implementation by the government of the 30% gender quota in 2004 with which women obtained more political involvement. This showed that the government aimed at empowering women and strived for more gender equality. Until recently a mildly progressive development with respect to women’s participation is still taking place. Several other organizations and institutions support the pro-feminist movement. Yet, as it is, the feminist progressive spirit has also known a certain backlash since 2014. In this thesis my research will show how the relation between Islam and feminism in Indonesia has changed during the last 5 years and consequently what challenges the Indonesian religious feminist movement is facing. I will focus on the recent events, struggles and the coinciding ongoing debates. Firstly, I will focus on the by government implemented gender quota system and its pitfalls. Secondly, I will briefly discuss the various organizations and institutions that contribute to Indonesian feminist movement and are linked to the recent KUPI-congress which provides us information about the specific Indonesian ‘religious’ feminist movement. Thirdly, I will cover the debate about the Elimination of the Sexual Violence Bill which gives us insights in what the pro-feminist spirit and the anti-feminist wave have to contend with. Finally, I will discuss the Islamic sources and the contextual interpretation of the scriptures that dictate how Indonesian women should dress in the public sphere and act in in the political arena. These different aspects of my research will answer the question: “How has the relation between Islam and feminism changed since the start of the Jokowi-era in 2014?” Show less
Bachelor thesis | South and Southeast Asian Studies (BA)
closed access
The high number of extrajudicial killings during the regime of President Rodrigo Duterte raises the question of how populism is causing democratic regression in the Philippines.
Bachelor thesis | South and Southeast Asian Studies (BA)
open access
2018-08-31T00:00:00Z
The year 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Suharto regime. likewise, it marks the reawakening of customary rights (adat) in Indonesian politics. In this thesis, I aim to place two...Show moreThe year 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Suharto regime. likewise, it marks the reawakening of customary rights (adat) in Indonesian politics. In this thesis, I aim to place two of Indonesia's main seafaring communities, namely: the Orang Suku Laut and the Sama Bajau, in the debate surrounding this revival of tradition in Indonesian politics. In the first chapter, I analyse how the history of the Sama and the Orang Laut have positioned these communities in the Indonesian society, and whether or not stereotypes surrounding their communities have made it more difficult for them to profit from the recognition of customary rights. In chapter 2, I draw parallels between the Sama and the Orang Laut in the ways that their nomadic lifestyle has resulted in intangible forms of culture, making it harder for them to assert claims over territory. In this chapter I also show how their distinct cultural and religious identity contribute to their marginal status Indonesia. In the last chapter, I argue that Indonesia's sea nomads partial inability to participate in the reassertion of customary rights is rooted in a multitude of factors, including: the hegemony of environmental motives surrounding customary rights' advocacy groups, the difficulty of claiming ownership over land, and civil rights under the pressure of statelessness, and the difficulty of affirming sea-based and coastal territory in land disputes under the hegemony of regional developmentalism. I stress the difference between their respective territories, which presents each community with a distinct adversary in their struggle for the recognition of customary land rights.Show less
Bachelor thesis | South and Southeast Asian Studies (BA)
closed access
This thesis considers the pesantren, Senin-Kamis Al-Fatah, that was solely for the waria-community of Yogyakarta. The thesis describes the position of waria in Indonesia before Islam became...Show moreThis thesis considers the pesantren, Senin-Kamis Al-Fatah, that was solely for the waria-community of Yogyakarta. The thesis describes the position of waria in Indonesia before Islam became dominant and describes a tolerant and intolerant version of Islam.Show less
Bachelor thesis | South and Southeast Asian Studies (BA)
closed access
The Hindu-Muslims relations are different in India and on Bali. The reason why this is, is the fact that ideologies in these areas when it comes to Hindus and Muslims dealing with each other differ...Show moreThe Hindu-Muslims relations are different in India and on Bali. The reason why this is, is the fact that ideologies in these areas when it comes to Hindus and Muslims dealing with each other differ. While in India the difference between the two groups are empathized and the inequality between the two religious groups is clear, on Bali it is the similarities between Hindus and Muslims that are stressed and there is no clear inequality between the two religious groups. Why the ideologies are different can be accounted for by the history of the two areas. In India, there was a time when Muslims invaded the country and ruled over them for more than three hundred years. It assumed by the Hindus in India that the Muslims in their country are descendants from the invaders and because of it they are enemies. On Bali, Muslims and Hindus have learned to live in harmony. They feel like they belong to one group. The economy on the island is dependent on an harmonious relationship between the two religious groups.Show less
Bachelor thesis | South and Southeast Asian Studies (BA)
closed access
In my thesis I will look at two areas in Indonesia which are popular tourism destinations for both Indonesian and foreign tourists and which have experienced and still experience a considerable...Show moreIn my thesis I will look at two areas in Indonesia which are popular tourism destinations for both Indonesian and foreign tourists and which have experienced and still experience a considerable amount of tourist influx. Tana Toraja and Bali are both areas to which tourists are attracted because of the culture they can find there, including for example rituals, architecture and art performances. The tourists visit these places to see and experience something that is different from their daily lives, to break through the daily grind and experience something new. This is in accordance with the definition Valene Smith gives of a tourist: "a temporarily leisured person who voluntarily visits a place away from home for the purpose of experiencing a change" (1977: 2). The tourists, or guests, visit a place of which its inhabitants can be called the host community and of course there takes interaction place between these two groups of people. Tourism is a powerful medium affecting culture change and I want to examine in how far tourism affects culture in these two areas. Tourism growth in Tana Toraja and Bali started in the 1970s, during Suharto's Orde Baru, and these areas were explicitly named in the First and Second Five Year Plan and encouraged for tourism development. In the years after this the tourist influx in both areas grew exponentially, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, but it decreased in the years from 1997 because of political instability in Indonesia, and of course the Bali bombings in 2002 can't be ignored. So my time-frame will be from the 1970s until now, with the exception of some background information from before that time. In the case of Bali, when looking at tourism and cultural change, it is important to realize what this 'Balinese culture' actually is. Because in earlier times, Balinese culture has been influenced and inspired significantly by Western art and artists (and the other way around), like Walter Spies, and the kind of art that came about then still exists in the Bali of today. Culture is not something static, it is always subject to change and thus ever changing. So I will not discuss one 'kind of culture' in Tana Toraja and Bali respectively, but look at the process of culture change over time. Culture change doesn't always have to be because of outside influences, like tourism, but it can also happen from the inside. From what I've read until now, this is an important point concerning Tana Toraja. My thesis will not just be a one-way analysis of the positive and negative influences of tourism on these areas, but it will also be about how the hosts react and adjust themselves and their culture to the growing tourism in their homeland. There are different effects of tourism on the host community concerning religion, commercialization, the staging of culture, culture becoming art, cultural revivalism, self-image and pride, and I want to examine whether these things are taking place in Bali and Tana Toraja and if Bali responds differently to tourism then Tana Toraja and if so, why this could be. I already found that in Tana Toraja, as a result of nascent tourism, the ancestral religion or Aluk To Dolo has actually been granted legitimacy by the Ministry of Religion, which is interesting. I expect something similar happens in Bali to Hinduism. This is of course already a religion recognized by the Indonesian government, but as with Aluk To Dolo I believe it has gained a lot more political (on the national level) and outside interest and 'prestige' because of tourism. Besides that, the growth of commercial tours to Tana Toraja has supported a renewed interest in local ritual and artistic tradition, as is also true in Bali. Commercialization of religious rites in both areas is almost inevitable and I will further examine in what ways this is taking place. I will include the political context where necessary and the process of modernization and globalization also plays an important role. My expectation is that the effects of tourism in Tana Toraja in most cases parallel those in Bali, although in Bali on a bigger scale than in Tana Toraja, considering the amount of tourists visiting Bali every year. This may have the consequence that the process of culture change in Bali takes place more swiftly, and more gradually in Tana Toraja.Show less
