Women and Political Rights in Islam (Focusing on Indonesia)

In the male dominated society, there are minimum political rights given to women. Particularly the increased of demand for extended female political participation, the matter of female involvement in politics on various levels has become a much debate. When it comes to women political participation and leadership, there seems to have been contradiction between the ideal expressed in sharia and actual practices in Muslim state policies. Cultural values related to women’s sexuality in Muslim countries, which reflected the inequality of gender very much influenced by the formulation of law, both secular and Islamic law. The question of the role of religion on gender constructions, for example in Indonesia has not been asked often enough, but is clearly of great relevance to contemporary debates, as the country struggles towards a modern democratic state. The discussion on gender roles becomes particularly conspicuous when we turn to the matter of women’s political participation in Islam. The question to be considered is how does the pre-existing, culturally rooted perception of women influence the interpretation of the Qur'anic position on women? The interpretation of the Qur'an itself is influenced by social, moral, economic and political concerns, including interpretation regarding women in political rights. Qualitative method is used to achieve the purpose of this study.