Pradana Boy ZTF, the Chief of Sharia department, was invited to be one of the keynote speakers at National University of Singapore (11/20-21). On a seminar about "Religious Activism and Women's Development in Southeast Asia”, Boy would join other delegates from many countries. He would talk on his paper titled “Muslim Elite's Perception on Women: A General Survey”.
Boy who was the alumnus of Australian National University stated in his paper that the conservative moslems' view toward the women in Islam was similar with the secular Western intelectuals' view. Especially those feminists who thought Islam an obstacle for gender stuff. "Even they have different formulation about it, they actually do have the same opinion on certain context," said Boy who had just launched his last book “Para Pembela Islam: Pertarungan Konservatif dan Progresif di Tubuh Muhammadiyah”.
Further he explained that there were three main obstruction factors of gender similarity. Firstly, the women's mentality; secondly, the conservative views of the women in Islam; and thirdly, the culture.
Being invited to that seminar, through the cooperation with Center for Research on Islam and Malay Affair, Singapore, was because of Boy's works and his progressive thinking. He was the secretary of the Centre for the Study on Islam and Philosophy, before he was elected as the Chief of the department. Beside, he was active as Pemuda Muhammadiyah in Malang. That was why, Direktorat Dikti Depdiknas gave him grant to be a keynote speaker on a seminar abroad. (nas/t_ris)
Here the abstract of the seminar:
The debate over women status and position is of the most heated debates in Islam. Given this nature, Muslim elites’ perceptions on women are various and cannot be easily identified in clear-cut dichotomy. In general sense, Muslim elites’ understanding of women can be classified into three broad categories of moderate, liberal and radical or conservative. Within these broad categories, there still can be some derivatives that make the spectrum of Muslim elites’ opinion in women in Islam more interesting.
Moderates believe in the equal position of women and men but with different fields. Moderate Muslim perception can be seen as good example of hybrid value of Islam and local traditions. Liberals, on the other hand, are much influenced by western view of liberal feminists who see men and are men are equal in every field of life. Therefore, liberals see women can also play what men can do in the public sphere. Among these three positions, radicals hold the most rigid understanding of women status in Islam. They perceive women and men in term of sharp dichotomy: public and domestic, strong and weak, ordinate and subordinate.
