Is Life Beautiful?

this article supposed to be appear in The Jakarta Post today. This is a complete version. You’re all welcome and feel free, please, to give me respond regarding this provocative topic. I will do more research to update this issue and gonna add this chapter into my english edition of "Sejarah Tumbuh di Kampung Kami."

diyah

The Trouble With Syariah

By: Mardiyah Chamim

Sunny day with breeze moving in the air. Neusu soccer field, in central of Banda Aceh, surrounded by positive energy. A dozen little boys practising soccer while several young men jogging around. A happy scene among sadness aura that left behind by tsunami.

Surprisingly. That happy Sunday morning was interrupted by the coming of a bunch men of Wilayatul Hisbah (WH), literary it’s mean control team, or morality force. Wearing green pants and whit shirt, riding pick up truck, they sternly asking all the people who were doing sport exercise to come along. "Get in the car, get in the car all of you…!" they said. Firmly, no one can say no.

Ahmad Sobirin, a social worker with Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), was among those people who were jogging at that very moment. He was also forced to join the WH’s truck and went straight to their office. "Your knees are not properly covered," one of WH said to Ahmad Sobirin and the kids.

Actually, nothing frightened happened in Syariah Office. No whip swing on their back, no jail and no single dime fine for all of them. Ahmad and those innocent poor kids got long lecture about how Islamic law (syariah) ordered muslim for not showing certain part of body (aurat). Women must cover all of their body except their palm hands and their face while men must never show their lower body, between belly and knees, to public. No discussion. No other interpretation allowed. If you go jogging or playing soccer, please, wear your long training pack or your sarong. If you do not want to get bothered by this matter, then just sit nicely at your house and have a good coffee sip.

Later that week, I met Anjar Ari Nugroho, a young man who left his career in Jakarta right after tsunami and joined Air Putih Foundation as volunteer. Anjar told me that he recently has been invited by local government to attend a meeting of NGOs activist. An ordinary meeting just like hundreds of meetings he attended before. But, this meeting was hold in different way, men and women should be sitting strictly in separated section. "This is not right," Anjar said, "I prefer to walk out of the room."

Similar experience I had while my team doing mobile movie screening program in several villages in Aceh, last month. We were setting up a movie show –Rindu Kami Padamu, directed by Garin Nugroho–in front of wooden barrack. Every night people all gathered in crowd, waiting the show. But, before the show got started, Mr. Anwar, a local guy who helped my team in field, asked me to separate the audience in two rows.

I know this request would come up. But, wait a second, people here, who already suffered from terrible disaster, just want to have little enjoyment. They need to restore their shattered spirit by sitting together close to their remains relatives. Husbands holding their wife’s hand, grandma with her grandson in her lap, father sitting next to his daughter, children, boys and girls, nephews and cousins, sitting together on the ground while joking around. How could we have a gut to separate them? Thanks God, Mr. Anwar agreed with me, he just smile with full of understanding. The show goes on.

The story does not stop here. At the end of our journey we went to "Panti Asuhan Aneuk Nelayan" (orphanage for fishermen’s kids) in Lhok Seumawe, North Aceh. Seventy children, ranged from 5 - 18, live in the orphanage which located in an abandoned school building, deep in a village of Ulee Jalan.

Children were so happy to seeing us preparing movie screening equipment. They asked everything, what we were doing, where we will play the movie, and so on. Yes, they are nice children indeed. They were willing to finished their homework, do praying, and have dinner before ready to watch the movie.

Then I sensed something was not right. At dinner time, there were only boys in dining room. Where are the girls? “Inside their room,” a boy answered. I went to the girls room. How surprised I was when I saw all 30 young girls in one big room, chit-chat and do other things.

“Why don’t you have dinner along with the boys?“

“Kakak (big sister), we will have dinner after the boys finished,” Noni, 9.

Honestly, as a woman myself, I was shocked. We all have the same biological rhythm. Empty screaming stomach does not know gender differentiation, does it?

****

The trouble with syariah, I took this title form "The Trouble With Islam", a book which sparked controversy written by Irshad Manji, television journalist in Canada, who was born muslim . What’s going on in Aceh, in some ways, seemed represented what happen in Manji’s book. The same trouble come up here in Aceh nowadays, perhaps in all of Indonesia, especially after tsunami.

Many Acehnese were demanding WH should redouble their effort to supervise people applying syariah. Everyone who considered against the law must be punished without mercy. Gambling, adultery, stealing, in many ways have to be eliminated. Whipping show in front of public which already taken place many times in cases of gambling and adultery has to be done more often. "We need strong action. God already punished us. We don’t want other tsunami," that kind of comments frequently appears in newspaper and posters.

On the other hand, there were also some people who asking and expressing their scary feeling. "I do not quite understand what Islam rules in every aspect of life. Therefore I am afraid of acting wrong and get caught by WH," a young woman asking in a letter to editor of Serambi Indonesia, local newspaper.

Going deeper into daily conversation, we can easily find pro and contra regarding this subject. A woman who lives in Banda Aceh, who asked to be identified only as Sari, told me once that she was not happy when her youngest daughter forced to wear headscarf by WH. “She is only 10, not even get her first period yet. Let her grow and think what’s best for her,” Sari said. She has reason not to reveal her identity since her thought of jilbab is consider provocative among Acehnese. "People would get angry with you because of this. They will say, this is perfectly the thing that invite tsunami."

As for jilbab, head cover for women muslim, actually there were many interpretations in this area. Some said jilbab is 100 percent obligation for muslimah (women muslim) and some said that jilbab only part of Arabian cultural clothing to prevent dehydration in desert. Indonesian muslim has long history of headscarf that appeared in various way. Cut Nyak Dhien, a great woman hero of Aceh, for example, covered her head with silky transparent long scarf while her hair was done nicely in small bun which called ‘Ok Sanggoi Cut Nyak Dhien (hair bun of Cut Nyak Dhien). Unfortunately, it seems there is no room for other interpretation of jilbab nowadays. Headscarf term apparently goes in Arabic style.

“I do not like this situation,“ Sari said after long pause. “If my daughter want to wear jilbab, it has to be her own decision, not other’s,” Sari continued, “Beside, who are those WH to judge other people? How hypocrite.”

Sad to say, she was right. The air hypocrisy is relatively thick in Aceh. Local government ordered serial regulation of daily business. One of rule said that all of stores, restaurants and coffee houses have to close their operation during praying times. So, it’s true, you would not find open coffee house in Aceh on praying time, especially on Friday noon, maghrib (sunset) and Isya (night) praying times. They were all close, the front curtains get down tightly. But, take a closer look, there were always small open door in the back that you can go inside. Surprise, inside coffeehouse you will find many people –most of them are men–who enjoy a cup of coffee sip by sip.

*****

Back in 1999, Jakarta thought that application of Islamic law would erase conflict in Aceh. President BJ Habibie, at that time, believed that ordering syariah law, somehow, would heal Acehnese wounded heart that caused by injustice for many decades.

Soon after government officially declared application of syariah law in Aceh, with constitution number 44/1999, there was a rapid changing happened. Names of stores, offices, streets, schools in Aceh turned into Islamic words. There were many places officially labelled as “kawasan wajib jilbab”, strictly head cover areas –again, rule for women only. Military forces (TNI), police, government institutions, all backed up this syariah policy.

Women, unfortunately, easily became the main target of syariah. Those women who dare not wearing headscarf in public place will be caught, their hair will be cut recklessly, their dress stripped by WH. Suraiyya Kamaruzaman, an activist, protested this humiliating approach. She demanded further discussion and said those action by WH was not necessary at all since what happened in Aceh is Arabization, not Islamization. She said, “Why don‘t we make it faster by replace all of officer‘s car with camels?” (Inside Indonesia, July 2004).

Now, after tsunami, those arrogant approach of syariah application come back in field. Maybe even more stiff. Many times people use term of God-punishment-and-we-don’t-want-another-tsunami to justify their act when forcing other people. As usual, women are the ones who being on the spotlight. Some even blamed the giant wave on women for ignoring Islam rules since there was saying that good or bad a nation all depend on women quality.

****

Indeed, so many things going on in Aceh nowadays. Cultural values, especially, being exercised in very critical ways. This is the crucial time when Acehnese, and all Muslim actually, being tested, are we capable to do things wisely, after having so dreadful tragedy that claimed 170.000 lives of Acehnese, or we just simply ignored and do whatever we want in the name of god?

There were thousands issues that much more important and needed to be solved with full of our capability, as a whole nation, in Aceh. Instead of paying attention on short sport, all of our energy supposed to be focused on education, taking care of orphans, running economic wheels in every line, keep an eye on after tsunami recovery process, and so on.

Mashudi SR, Researcher of Human Right NGO Coalition of Aceh, in his article on www.acehinstitute.org, remind us of the importance of real hard work to build prosperity and social justice if we want to establish Islamic milieu. Abu Bakar, one of Prophet Muhammad best friend, once said : “if social justice and welfare still doesn’t exist, then God law should put public benefit at the first place".

Mashudi also stressed that forcing and humiliating others strictly prohibited by Islam as a peace religion. "It is right that syariah has been made to keep men and women do things right. But it is totally wrong when we, in the name of syariah, took all individual right and forcing others. It’s against syariah itself."

There is a little hope, though. Prof. Ali Yasa, Chief of Syariah Office, admitted that WH sometimes doing their job a little bit too far. Therefore he promised that to conduct evaluation to eliminate public complaint of WH performance. Islamic law, he said on Kompas (February 25, 2006), must be applied with tender and compassion. If that happen, then we can hope that Aceh could really become a darussalam, a peaceful house.

****

Mardiyah Chamim, journalist work with Tempo Weekly Magazine, author of book “History Grows in Our Village — A Journal of Aceh-Tsunami Hot Zone”

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 16th, 2006 at 1:08 am and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.