Aisyiyah () is an Islamic

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

in Indonesia dedicated to female empowerment and charitable work. It was formed on 19 May 1917 by

Nyai Ahmad Dahlan Siti Walidah (1872 – 31 May 1946), better known as Nyai Ahmad Dahlan, was a female emancipation figure, wife of Muhammadiyah founder Ahmad Dahlan, and National Hero of Indonesia. Biography Early life Nyai Ahmad Dahlan was born Siti Walid ...

to facilitate women's access to education, health care and social services.Aisyiyah
at the

Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs (or simply Berkley Center) is an academic research center at Georgetown University in Washington, DC dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of religion, ethics, and politics. The center w ...

. Accessed 8 December 2016.Aisyiyah
at the official

MAMPU The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU; ) is one of the prominent government agency, government agencies in Malaysia, that is responsible for 'modernising and reforming' the public sector. Overview Malaysi ...

website. Accessed 8 December 2016. The organization provides micro-loan and small business development support, family planning services, maternal and pediatric care, orphanages, training for female Muslim clerics, and standard preschool through university level education.Florian Pohl, ''The Muhammadiyah''. Taken fro
The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Social Justice
pgs. 246-247. Eds. Michael D. Palmer and Stanley M. Burgess.

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Publishing, publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and pr ...

, 2012. Pieternella van Doorn-Harder, ''WOMEN SHAPING ISLAM: Reading the Qu'ran in Indonesia'', pg .92.

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University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois System. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, thirty-three scholarly journals, and several electroni ...

, 2010. These social services end at death, whereby the organization provides female morticians so that female bodies do not need to be prepared for burial by men.Pieternella van Doorn-Harder, ''WOMEN SHAPING ISLAM'', pg. 93. Aisyiyah manages several hundred healthcare centers in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

as well as three branches in

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Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The organization's stated goal is to make Islamic society a reality for women, and it encourages its members to seek further education even if they become "smarter than their husbands."Pieternella van Doorn-Harder, ''WOMEN SHAPING ISLAM'', pg. 91. Aisyiyah faces opposition to their work from two sources: traditional

Javanese culture Javanese culture () is the culture of the Javanese people. Javanese culture is centered in the provinces of Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java in Indonesia. Due to various migrations, it can also be found in other parts of the world, such as ...

with its pre-Islamic practices and the minority of Indonesians who study Islam in the Middle East both display negative attitudes toward women in the public space.

History

Para Wanita Penggerak Aisyiyah Tahun 1928

Aisyiyah's efforts initially focused on female literacy for the sake of reading the Qur'an. The organization opened the first Indonesian Islamic preschool in Kauman in 1919,Pieternella van Doorn-Harder, ''WOMEN SHAPING ISLAM'', pg. 95. the organization's own first teacher college in 1922, and its first worship hall in the same city in 1923, wherein a female imam led an all-female congregation. Much of the organization's early activity was also based on economic rights. Women in Indonesia often work at similar jobs to men, and thus Aisyiyah emphasized women's right to rest and refuse work as well as the connection between religious piety and work ethic. The organization's support for female leadership from 1978 also predated wider national debate on the topic in the 1990s, and by 1999 Aisyiyah had publicly endorsed the idea of a female leader of the national government.Kurniawati Hastuti Dewi
Indonesian Women and Local Politics: Islam, Gender and Networks in Post-Suharto Indonesia
pg. 58.

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

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, 2015. Aisyiyah has been noted for relatively early action in modern Indonesia's civil society. In addition to being the first Muslim women's organization in the country, it also promoted women's literacy at a time when most of the population in general was illiterate.Rachel Rinaldo
Mobilizing Piety: Islam and Feminism in Indonesia
pg. 36.

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, 2013. Its members wore the Muslim headscarf at a time when the practice was not yet the norm in Indonesia, and although their vocational schools taught Islamic moral values, their schools were also coeducational unlike the gender-segregated religious schools of the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

Membership

All members of Aisyiyah take a vow upon reception of their membership card to uphold the organization's tenets and protect its image as a pious group. Extra devotion beyond what is considered the minimum in Islamic doctrine, such as

nafl prayer In Islam, a Nafl Prayer, (pl. nawafil) (, ''ṣalāt al-nafl'') or optional prayer, is a type of a non-obligatory prayer. They are believed to give extra reward to the person performing them, similar to sunnah prayers. According to the followi ...

, is the normal practice for most of its members. Although Aisyiyah was founded to fulfill the goal of religious purification rather than women's emancipation, the organization has been able to exert influence on religious discourse in Indonesia. Although its parent organization,

Muhammadiyah Muhammadiyah (), officially Muhammadiyah Society () is a major Islamic non-governmental organization in Indonesia.A. Jalil HamidTackle the rising cost of living longer New Straits Times, 30 October 2016. Accessed 1 November 2016. The organization ...

, did not officially permit

birth control Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...

until 1971, it was the efforts of Aisyiyah's female Muslim clerics and study circles that shaped the view of permissibility on the issue.

References

External links

* {{Islam in Indonesia Muhammadiyah Islamic organizations established in 1917 Women's organizations based in Indonesia 1917 establishments in the Dutch East Indies