Memecah Kebisuan: Agama Mendengar Suara Perempuan Korban Kekerasan demi Keadilan (Breaking the Silence: Religions Listen to the Voice of Female Victims of Violence in the Name of Justice)

This work is the result of a collaborative effort between the National Commission for Women (Komnas Perempuan), female scholars, and religious leaders representing Islam, Catholicism, and Protestanism. The aim is to break the monopoly held by men over interpretations of holy books and to challenge the hegemonic patriarchal culture upon which domestic violence is based. The manuscript for Muslims was written by a team affiliated with Muhammadiya; Indonesia’s second largest Muslim organisation. This section quotes the Hadith that is most often used by ulamas to justify domestic violence, and discusses how people misinterpret religion to justify what is done to victims. The Muhammadiya writers argue that this Hadith should not be taken literally and quote a series of other Hadiths to underline to prophet’s fairness. The writers who address Catholicism and Protestanism decisively scrutinise the bible to show that many interpretations of this religious text have been used to the detriment of women. Domestic violence, for example, has at times been hushed up, or excused by literaral interpretations of passages that say “wives must be submissive to their husbands like they are submissive to Christ”. The intention of these sections is to changed the paradigm of theology so that the Church can take a more proactive approach to helping women. [in Indonesian]

Komnas Perempuan
Publisher and location: 
Komnas Perempuan: Jakarta, Indonesia