Muslim Politics Review
Vol. 4 No. 2, 2025, 223-225
https://doi.org/10.56529/mpr.v4i2.528

Foreword
Philips J. Vermonte, A’an Suryana
Faculty of Social Sciences, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia
Corresponding Email: aan.suryana@uiii.ac.id

Women’s empowerment dominates this eighth edition of Muslim
Politics Review [Vol. 4, No. 2, December 2025]. The edition’s first three
articles discuss the challenges that women face in both culture and the
political systems they live in, such as in India, Indonesia, the Philippines,
and Bangladesh. Discussing these challenges is important: women are
increasingly assuming important roles in Muslim societies, particularly
thanks to better access to education and work opportunities. At the same
time, the dual pressures of women’s professional roles and traditional care
roles such as being a mother present unique challenge. So, as more
women shape social and political affairs in Global South countries, their
roles deserve scrutiny in this edition of Muslim Politics Review.
The first article, titled ‘Governing Religion: Colonial Legality, State,
and the Case of Hijab in India’, explains how Muslim female students in
predominantly-Hindu India face difficulties in expressing their religious
beliefs following a high court ruling banning them from wearing hijab at
schools. By doing so, the Court wished to emphasize the norms of
secularity that serve as the bedrock of India’s social and political systems
stemming from British colonial rule that separates between public and
private life. The article criticizes the state, arguing that the state is not
supposed to suppress the interpretation of Muslim religious authority that
obliges women to wear the hijab. By extending the practice, the article
argues that the Muslim women’s lives – in this case, demonstrated
through wearing the hijab – are “regulated, controlled, and disciplined,

Vermonte, Suryana

and the boundaries of religion are managed through secular-Hindu
constituents of power”.
The second article, ‘Post-Conflict Political Dynamics in Aceh and
Bangsamoro: Religious Symbols and Patrimonialism in Practice’, also
deals with state interventions in women’s affairs. It argues that women –
alongside other vulnerable groups in their society – are often the victims
of neo-patrimonialism perpetrated by the elites in the post-conflict areas
of Aceh, Indonesia, and Bangsamoro, the Philippines. The male political
elites in these regions, who claim to represent Islam, often abuse religious
meanings and symbols to establish and exert their power at the expense
of women and others. These elites use jargon such as ‘abang-abang syar’i'
(‘sharia brothers’), projecting religious masculinity as both a moral
authority and a basis of political dominance.
The third article, titled ‘Faith and Empowerment among
Bangladeshi Muslim Women’, discusses women’s empowerment and faith
in Bangladesh. The article explores how the interpretation of Islam is not a
homogenous one, but depends on various factors, such as class, culture,
and norms, which serve as the structures that shape women’s
empowerment. The Bangladesh case shows how women have the agency
to produce change, thanks to the advancement of the technology such as
social media that can help advance the voice of women against
disempowering Islamic religious dogma.
This edition’s other three articles discuss various contemporary
topics in Indonesia: contested piety, conservatism and scientism, and the
rise of China’s soft power. The fourth article discusses how the hijrah
movement in Islam as “part of the cultural and spiritual trends” in
Indonesia is being constructed as threat by the state and Muslim mass
organizations. The article, titled ‘When Piety is Framed as Threatening: The
Hijrah Movement within the Politics of Religious Moderation’, argues that
this securitization logic “risks narrowing Indonesia’s religious pluralism by
stigmatizing identity-based piety” and undermines the state’s and mass
organizations’ religious moderation goals of tolerance and harmony. The
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Foreword

fifth article, ‘When Religious Conservatism Intertwines with AntiScientism: Friday Prayers in the Time of Corona in Semarang’, discusses
the effect of religious conservatism and anti-scientism on religious
leaders’ attitudes toward the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020. Rising
religious conservatism and anti-scientism, as reflected in preachers’
sermons during congregational Friday prayers, contributed to their
opposition to health protocols which aimed to reduce the spread. The
religious leaders continued to open their mosques for Friday prayers,
contributing to the spread of COVID-19 in Semarang. This edition’s sixth
article examines a contemporary issue significant magnitude: the rise of
China’s soft power and how it reduces anti-communism propaganda
against China. This final article, titled ‘China's Soft Power in Indonesia:
Eliminating the Remnants of Suharto’s US-Backed Anti-Communist
Propaganda’, provides evidence of how China’s vigorous economic,
education, and cultural efforts have strengthened China’s first and second
track diplomacy toward Indonesia, ultimately resulting in reduced anticommunist propaganda and Indonesian belief in such messages.

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