Gender, Islam and Sexuality in Contemporary Indonesia - (Engaging Indonesia) by Monika Arnez & Melani Budianta (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This Open Access volume explores the complex interplay between gender, Islam and sexuality in Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population. The authors offer a fresh look at the tensions between the local and the global through a wide range of cultural expressions and productions, including fashion, Islamic dating, popular literature, and videos on YouTube. The book is grouped around three core themes: sexuality and violence, halal lifestyle, and shame and self-determination. The first section unpacks how activists and progressive religious scholars have argued for the need for the Sexual Violence Bill and it examines the ambivalence between criminalisation and care towards LGBTQ+ people. In the second, the authors bring new insights into how local expressions of Islam, gender and sexuality are negotiated in an increasingly globalised world. The contributions on the third theme tackle gender roles and mobility in culturally diverse regions such as HongKong, Taiwan, Singapore, the US, and Indonesia.

"The volume is a must-read for anyone wanting to get up to speed on changes in Indonesia's gender, sexuality and Islamic landscape." - Professor Sharyn Graham Davies, Director of the Herb Feith Indonesia Engagement Centre, Monash University, Australia

"A showcase of excellent research, this book is of appeal to Indonesian studies scholars, and to readers in the field of Asian cultural studies. It is also of relevance to the field of Asian gender and sexuality studies, and to scholars in Islamic studies." - Professor Pamela Nilan, University of Newcastle, Australia

From the Back Cover

This Open Access book explores the complex interplay between gender, Islam and sexuality in Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population. The authors offer a fresh look at the tensions between the local and the global through a wide range of cultural expressions and productions, including fashion, Islamic dating, popular literature, and videos on YouTube. The book is grouped around three core themes: sexuality and violence, halal lifestyle, and shame and self-determination. The first section unpacks how activists and progressive religious scholars have argued for the need for the Sexual Violence Bill and it examines the ambivalence between criminalisation and care towards LGBTQ+ people. In the second, the authors bring new insights into how local expressions of Islam, gender and sexuality are negotiated in an increasingly globalised world. The contributions on the third theme tackle gender roles and mobility in culturally diverse regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, the US, and Indonesia.

"The volume is a must-read for anyone wanting to get up to speed on changes in Indonesia's gender, sexuality and Islamic landscape." - Professor Sharyn Graham Davies, Director of the Herb Feith Indonesia Engagement Centre, Monash University, Australia

"A showcase of excellent research, this book is of appeal to Indonesian studies scholars, and to readers in the field of Asian cultural studies. It is also of relevance to the field of Asian gender and sexuality studies, and to scholars in Islamic studies." - Professor Pamela Nilan, University of Newcastle, Australia

Review Quotes

"Gender, Islam and Sexuality in Contemporary Indonesia makes significant contributions to scholarship at the intersection of gender studies, religious studies, and Southeast Asian studies. ... Its multi-disciplinary approach - incorporating legal analysis, cultural studies, and ethnography - provides a comprehensive lens through which to examine the socio-political implications of increasing moral regulation... The book is highly recommended for anyone seeking a nuanced and multi-faceted understanding of gender, Islam, and sexuality in contem­porary Indonesia." (Jing Hua, Gender, Place & Culture, February 23, 2025)

About the Author

Dr. Melani Budianta is a lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia. Her research interests tie in with gender and postcolonial studies, comparative literature, and cultural studies. She received her doctorate from Cornell University in 1992. She is an active member of the international journal Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Routledge, the editorial board on anthology at the Project of American Literature in Asia (PALA), and she holds a position as fellow at Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA). Several of her research articles have been included in international publications. Two cases in point are "Hijacking Shakespeare; The three faces of Indonesian Julius Caesars", published in Shakespeare's Asian Journeys - Critical Encounters, Cultural Geographies, and the Politics of Travel, edited by Bi-qi Beatrice Lei, Judy Celine Ick, amd Poonam Trivedi (2016) and The Dragon Dance: "Shifting Meaning of Chineseness in in Indonesia" in Self and Subject in Motion - Southeast Asian Pacific Cosmopolitans (2007), edited by Kathryn Robinson. Her most recently released article is "Smart Kampung: Doing Cultural Studies in the Global South" (2019), published in the journal Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies.

Dr Monika Arnez is an associate professor for Social and Cultural Anthropology and head of the research cluster Anthropology Advancements in the Department of Asian Studies at Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Czech Republic. She participated in the Horizon 2020 projects "Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia" (CRISEA; 2017-2021) and "Integration in Southeast Asia: Trajectories of Inclusion, Dynamics of Exclusion" (SEATIDE, 2012-2016). She was an Excellent Researcher in the Sinophone Borderlands project, which was funded by EU Structural Funds. Among her publications are her co-edited books Traditions Redirecting Contemporary Indonesian Cultural Productions (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017; together with Jan van der Putten, Arndt Graf and Edwin Wieringa), and The Role of Religions in the European Perception of Insular and Mainland Southeast Asia: Travel Accounts of the 16th to the 21st Century (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016; together with Jürgen Sarnowsky). On the topic of gender and Islam she published "Dimensions of Morality: The transnational Writers' Collective" in Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde 172(4): 449-478, together with Eva Nisa, "A Dialogue with God? Islam and lesbian relationships in two Post-Suharto narratives," in: Susanne Schröter (ed), Gender and Islam in Southeast Asia. Women's Rights Movements, Religious Resurgence and Local Traditions (Leiden: Brill, 2013), p. 73-94, and "Empowering women through Islam: Fatayat NU between tradition and change" in the Journal of Islamic Studies 21 (1): 59-88, as a single author.