Al-Jāmi‘ah: Journal of Islamic Studies - ISSN: 0126-012X (p); 2356-0912 (e)
Vol. 55, no. 2 (2017), pp.293-326, doi: 10.14421/ajis.2017.552.293-326

FEMINIST KYAI, K.H. HUSEIN MUHAMMAD
The Feminist Interpretation on Gendered Verses and
the Qur’ān-Based Activism1
Yusuf Rahman
Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta, Indonesia
email: yusuf.rahman@uinjkt.ac.id
Abstract
Husein Muhammad, a feminist ‘ālim or kyai of Dar al-Tauhid Islamic
boarding school in Arjawinangun Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia, has written
various articles and books on women issues and gender problem. Growing up in
a conservative family, and graduating from Al-Azhar University, kyai Husein
becomes one of the main proponents of Islamic feminism in Indonesia. Apart
from leading a pesantren (Islamic boarding school), in 2000 kyai Husein
established Fahmina Institute, an NGO which strives to promote community
empowerment and gender justice based on pesantren tradition, and Fahmina
Islamic Studies Institute, an Islamic higher education, which aims to build a
tolerant and unprejudiced Indonesian Islam. This article discusses his approach
in reinterpreting the Qur’ānic verses and Islamic traditions on women issues,
and his contribution in the light of the discourse of gender and feminism in
Islam as well as in mainstreaming gender in Indonesia.
1

The draft of this paper has been presented at International Qur’ānic Studies
Association (IQSA) Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, USA, November 18-21,
2016. The paper is written during my research as Fulbright Senior Researcher at
University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, September 1, 2016 – February 28, 2017.
Unfortunately, some works could not be accessed since they are only available in
Indonesia. But, I would like to thank University of Notre Dame, especially the Hesburgh
Library, for finding the materials through Inter-Library Loan, and Fulbright for the
funding of my stay in the US. Both of them, however, do not influence my writing
of this article.

Yusuf Rahman

[KH Husein Muhammad merupakan ulama feminis, pengasuh Pondok
Pesantren Dar al-Tauhid Arjawinangun Cirebon Jawa Barat, yang telah
menghasilkan banyak tulisan dan buku terkait persoalan perempuan dan
masalah gender. Beliau yang dibesarkan dalam keluarga tradisional dan
lulusan Universitas Al-Azhar, kini telah menjadi tokoh utama feminis
Islam di Indonesia. Disamping menjadi pemimpin pondok pesantren, beliau
mendirikan Fahmina Institute pada tahun 2000 yang merupakan sebuah
LSM pemberdayaan masyarakat dan keadilan gender berbasis pesantren
tradisional. Selain itu juga mendirikan Fahmina Islamic Studies Institute,
sebuah perguruan tinggi Islam yang bertujuan membangun toleransi dan
mengikis prasangka Islam Indonesia. Tulisan ini membahas pendekatannya
dalam menafsirkan ayat al Qur’an dan tradisi Islam mengenai persoalan
perempuan serta kontribusinya dalam pencerahan wacana gender dan
feminisme dalam Islam terutama pengarusutamaan gender di Indonesia.]
Keywords: ulama, interpretation, gender, tradition, feminism
A. Introduction
K.H. Husein Muhammad, hereafter referred to as Kyai Husein, as
he is usually called, can be considered one of male Muslim feminists in
Indonesia.2 When discussing Muslim feminism, we usually refer to the
reinterpretation of the Qur’ān from specifically women’s perspective.
Following the footsteps of Muslim modernists’ works, such as Fazlur
Rahman, Asghar Ali Engineer, Khaled Abou el-Fadl, Naṣr Ḥāmid
Abū Zayd, among others which he usually quotes and refers to, Kyai
Husein examines critically the older interpretations of the Qur’ān and
fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), and provides new interpretations which
are more in tune to gender equality. He acknowledges that one of the
problems, if not the root of the problem in gender inequality, is the
male-biased interpretations of the Qur’ān and ḥadīth, as preserved in
Islamic traditions of tafsīr and fiqh inherited today as being sacred and
final. Kyai Husein has argued against the sacredness and finality of the
Islamic traditions. Thus, his scholarly works and activism, which will be
2

In addition to Husein Muhammad, there are other male Muslim feminists in
Indonesia, like Masdar Farid Masudi and Nasaruddin Umar. See the discussion in M.
Nuruzzaman, Kiai Husein Membela Perempuan (Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pesantren, 2005).

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discussed below, can support the attribution of Kyai Husein as a male
Muslim feminist.
There are many definitions of feminism, as there are many
discussions of the difference between Islamic feminist and Muslim
feminist. Margot Badran defines feminism as “the awareness that women
were subordinated and often oppressed and deprived of their rights in
the family and society as women and it moved to change this.”3 Similarly,
Nina Nurmila refers to as “an awareness of the existing oppression or
subordination of women because of their sex and as working to eliminate
such oppression or subordination and to achieve equal gender relations
between men and women.”4 In these definitions, as has been noted by
Nurmila, the main criteria of feminism is “the awareness” of the existing
oppression and subordination, and “the action” to eliminate and change
this oppression.
Kyai Husein has strived to protect and defend women from
subordination and oppression which, according to him, are caused by
religious thought, patriarchal culture and ideology. He also advocates and
implements his action to eliminate this subordination through different
ways.
The importance of Kyai Husein’s works and activism, however, has
to be seen in the context of his position as an Indonesian kyai (a religious
leader) of Islamic boarding school (pesantren), which are usually regarded
as the “preserver and maintainer of Islamic traditions.”5 Ayesha Chaudhry
has discussed the various contemporary approaches to gendered verses
in relation to the patriarchal Islamic traditions of the medieval period,
which she calls “egalitarian-authoritative dilemma.”6 So, the main question
is how Kyai Husein, as a male Muslim feminist, approaches and interprets
these verses and respond to the Islamic intellectual traditions which are
the main basis of pesantren.
3

Margot Badran, “Feminism”, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, ed.
by John L. Esposito (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 245.
4
Nina Nurmila, Women, Islam and Everyday Life: Renegotiating Polygamy in Indonesia
(London; New York: Routledge, 2009), p. 4.
5
Zamakhsyari Dhofier, Tradisi Pesantren: Studi tentang Pandangan Hidup Kyai
(Jakarta: Lembaga Penelitian, Pendidikan, dan Penerangan Ekonomi dan Sosial, 1980).
6
Ayesha Chaudhry, Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition: Ethics, Law, and the
Muslim Discourse on Gender (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).

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Kyai Husein is explicit about his location as a kyai of pesantren and
his personal concern on the subject of gender inequality in Indonesian
traditional pesantren. In his recent book, published in early 2016 entitled
Perempuan, Islam & Negara: Pergulatan Identitas dan Entitas, Kyai Husein
devotes the first part of the book to discuss “Women and Pesantren,”
which consists of the chapters on “Pesantren,” “Women in Pesantren,”
“Women in the Literature of Pesantren,” and “Women’s Movement in
Pesantren.”7
Therefore, this article will discuss the contribution of Kyai Husein’s
works and activism in the specific context of pesantren in Indonesia. The
pesantren is particularly important since it is designed to prepare future
Muslim leaders in local community and in Indonesian society more
broadly.
B. Pesantren, Kitab Kuning and Women Issues
The pesantren, according to Zamakhsari Dhofier,8 has five elements
to fulfill: 1) pondok, a dormitory where the santri (students) stay, 2) mosque,
as the center of the activities, where the santri pray and study, 3) santri, 4)
the teaching of kitab kuning, and 5) kyai as the owner and the educator.
In Pesantren the role of kyai is very central. The students or santri are
dependent of the kyai as the source of inspiration and moral support in
their lives. They will consult and request guidance from the kyai.9
There have been many studies on the role of kyai. Abdul Hamid in
his article “The Kiai in Banten: Shifting Roles in Changing Times,”10 has
summarized three findings: the first, Clifford Geertz who finds kyai as a
7

Husein Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara: Pergulatan Identitas dan Entitas,
Yogyakarta: Qalam Nusantara, 2016), pp. 1–96. His previous books also discuss the
issue of gender from kyai’s perspective. See, among others; Husein Muhammad, Fiqh
Perempuan: Refleksi Kiai atas Wacana Agama dan Gender, ed. by Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir
(Yogyakarta: LKIS, 2001); Husein Muhammad, Ijtihad Kyai Husein: Upaya Membangun
Keadilan Gender (Jakarta: Rahima, 2011).
8
Dhofier, Tradisi Pesantren.
9
Nuruzzaman, Kiai Husein Membela Perempuan, p. 189.
10
Abdul Hamid, “The Kiai in Banten: Shifting Roles in Changing Times”, in
Islam in Contention: Rethinking Islam and State in Indonesia, ed. by Ota Atsushi, Okamoto
Masaaki, and Ahmad Suaedy (Jakarta; Kyoto; Taipei: Wahid Institute, CSEAS, Kyoto
University; CAPAS, 2010), pp. 421–43.

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“cultural broker,” the second, a Japanese researcher, Hiroko Horikoshi,
who argues that a kyai had also the role as “creative instigators of social
change,” and the third, Kuntowijoyo who emphasizes the role of kyai
as political brokers. What is important in this article is the role of kyai
as the initiator of social change.
Generally speaking, there are many typologies of pesantren,11 but
it can be divided into traditional pesantren and modern pesantren. The
pesantren is called traditional in terms of the curriculum taught, which is
mostly Islamic sciences based on classical books in kitab kuning, and the
method of teaching, which is called bandongan, sorogan and ḥalaqah. This
type of pesantren is mostly affiliated with Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest
Indonesian Muslim mass-organization, beside Muhammadiyah. The
modern pesantren, on the other hand, includes in its curriculum “secular”
subjects to accommodate public school curriculum, and follow modern
method of teaching.
In addition, there are some pesantrens with a mixture of female and
male students, but there are also segregated/single-sex pesantren. They are
pesantren for the female or girls and pesantren for the male or boys. The
subject taught at these pesantrens (male and female) is almost the same, but
the subject on women issues is more highlighted in pesantren for women.
It is interesting to see the objectives of the pesantren. Eka Srimulyani
who has conducted researches on this, finds that the pesantren for women
is designed “to prepare women for the future who can deal with their
maternal duties well, morally and religiously being good wives and good
mothers for the future generations.”12 “To be a good mother and a good
wife,” as can be seen above, is the objective. In order to achieve this goal,
some specific gender rules are assigned; for example, they have to wear
jilbāb based on their reading of Qur’an, 24:31, and they are not allowed to
wear trousers, a practice thought to resemble a man’s outfit, by referring
to the Prophetic tradition La‘ana llāhu r-rajula yalbasu lubsata l-mar’ati wa
l-mar’ata talbasu lubsata r-rajuli (Allah curses the man who wears woman’s
11

Muhammad lists more than 5 types of pesantren. See Muhammad, Perempuan,
Islam & Negara, p. 24.
12
Eka Srimulyani, “Muslim Women and Education in Indonesia: The Pondok
Pesantren Experience”, Asia Pacific Journal of Education, vol. 27, no. 1 (2007), p. 88.

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outfit, and the woman who wears man’s outfit).13 But, the most important
tool to assist this goal is through the teaching of kitab kuning.
Kitab kuning has been the main characteristic of learning and
instruction in a pesantren, especially in traditional pesantren. It preserves
Islamic intellectual tradition, which is the product of the medieval
Muslim scholars, from which the students study Islamic literature, from
Qur’ānic interpretation, Prophetic tradition, Islamic law (fiqh), Arabic
grammar, Islamic history, sufism, and logics. But, the most dominant
subject taught in traditional pesantren is Islamic law, fiqh. From the four
schools of Islamic legal thought, the Shāfi‘ite school is the preference,
especially that which was elaborated and formulated by Shaikh Nawāwī
al-Bantanī (1813-98),14 an Indonesian Muslim scholar who taught at
Masjid al-Ḥarām and died in Mecca.
Kyai Husein and other Indonesian Muslim scholars who came from
a pesantren background have highlighted some of the problems pertaining
to women’s issues in the Islamic literature of some kitab kuning taught
in pesantren. Masdar F. Mas’udi, was the first Indonesian Muslim scholar
who pointed to these sexist views.15 In 1991 he presented his paper on
“Perempuan di Antara Lembaran Kitab Kuning” in a Seminar on Wanita
Islam Indonesia dalam Kajian Tekstual dan Kontekstual held by IndonesianNetherlands Cooperation in Islamic Studies (INIS) in Erasmus Huis
Jakarta December 2-5, 1991.16 He finds the subordinate views in this
literature, such as: women as half of men, women as an object of sex,
women as domestic creature, etc. Even though he also finds some other
views which position women above men, for example the ḥadīth which
states that “the Paradise is under the mothers’ feet” (al-jannatu taḥta aqdāmi
l-ummahāt), or that women have equal position with men, these views are
13

Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 36.
Ibid., p. 17.
15
Jajat Burhanudin and Oman Fathurahman (eds.), Tentang Perempuan Islam:
Wacana dan Gerakan (Jakarta: Penerbit Gramedia Pustaka Utama and PPIM, 2004), p. 139.
16
This paper and other papers have been published in Lies M. Marcoes-Natsir
and Johan H Meuleman, (eds.), Wanita Islam Indonesia dalam Kajian Tekstual dan Kontekstual:
Kumpulan Makalah Seminar (Jakarta: INIS, 1993). See Mas’udi’s paper in Masdar F.
Mas’udi, “Perempuan diantara Lembaran Kitab Kuning”, in Wanita Islam Indonesia
dalam Kajian Tekstual dan Kontekstual, ed. by Lies M. Marcoes-Natsir and Johan Hendrik
Meuleman (Jakarta: INIS, 1993), pp. 155–63.
14

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mostly perceived by many people only to apply in spiritual life and not
in the real social life.
Commenting on Mas’udi’s paper, Martin van Bruinessen sees that
kitab kuning has long been the subject of pengajian (religious teaching) in
pesantren, but, with Mas’udi’s study, it now also becomes the object of
pengkajian (critical study).17 From that time on, kitab kuning, especially
related to women issues, have been the focus of studies by many
Indonesian Muslim scholars.18 Kyai Husein criticizes also most fiqh books,
which, according to him, insist on the authority of men over women,
based on Qur’an, 4:34.19 He, for example, refers to al-Suyūṭī’s al-Ashbāh wa
al-Naẓā’ir which lists 100 differences of men’s rights to those of women,
especially in a chapter called al-Unthā Tukhālif al-Rajul fī al-Aḥkām (Women
differ Men in Laws).20
The most frequently criticized kitab kuning for promoting
hierarchical gender relations is Kitāb ‘Uqūd al-Lujjayn fī Bayān Ḥuqūq alZaujayn (Book on Contracts between Couples in Explaining the Rights
of Husband and Wife) by al-Nawāwī.  According to van Bruinessen, this
book stands as a required subject for female santri.
Having studied this book, Kyai Husein states that “the content of
this book is filled with discriminate views against women, maybe even
misogynist. It restricts women’s movement and freedom.”21 According
to Kyai Husein, the discourse of husband and wife’s relation in pesantren’s
17

Martin van Bruinessen, “Kitab Kuning dan Perempuan, Perempuan dan
Kitab Kuning”, in Wanita Islam Indonesia dalam Kajian Tekstual dan Kontekstual (Jakarta:
INIS, 1993), p. 165.
18
Mas’udi has written another book on women’s reproductive rights in Masdar
F. Mas’udi, Islam & Hak-Hak Reproduksi Perempuan (Bandung: Penerbit Mizan, 1997);
This book has been translated into English. See Masdar F. Mas’udi, Islam & Women’s
Reproductive Rights (Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia: Sisters in Islam, 2002); PPIM
has conducted several researches on this issue, see for example Ali Munhanif, (ed.),
Mutiara Terpendam: Perempuan dalam Literatur Islam klasik (Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka
Utama and PPIM, 2002); and Arief Subhan, (ed.), Posisi dan Peran Perempuan dalam Islam
(Jakarta: PPIM, 2008); On this issue, see the discussion in Jajat Burhanudin and Oman
Fathurahman (eds.), Tentang Perempuan Islam: Wacana dan Gerakan, p. 132.
19
Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 43.
20
Ibid., pp. 43–4. For example: woman cannot lead the prayer for men; she
cannot be a mu’adhdhin, a caller to prayer; she is not required to perform Friday prayer, etc.
21
Ibid., p. 48.

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text book contains patriarchal paradigm and perspective. The superiority
of men over women covers all aspects: from private domain (conjugal
relations) and extends to the public domain. Some of these patriarchal
views are: wife has to obey her husband, she has to give in her body
whenever her husband needs, she cannot go outside the house except
with husband’s permission, husband can hit his wife, and so on. In order
to support these views, the book quotes the verses of the Qur’ān as well
as the Prophetic traditions.
Kyai Husein and other Indonesian Muslim scholars with pesantren
background, under the name Study Forum for Yellow Books (FK3), led
by Ibu Sinta Nuriah Wahid—wife of former President Abdurrahman
Wahid, have criticized the book and published it in a book called Wajah
Baru Relasi Suami-Istri: Telaah Kitab ‘Uqud al-Lujjayn in 2001. They find
that 33% of ḥadīths quoted in the book fall in the category of mauḍū‘,
22% ḍa‘īf (weak), and the rest ṣaḥīḥ or ḥasan. But, even the sound ḥadīth
in terms of sanad (chain of transmission), they argue, the ḥadīths can still
be questioned in terms of matan (content). They refer to the statement
of ḥadīth scholars laysa kullu mā ṣaḥḥa isnāduhu ṣaḥḥa matnuhu (Not all
ḥadīths whose chain of transmission is sound, the content is sound).22
Furthermore, the authors argue that Nawāwī’s argument in favor of wife
beating is mostly influenced by his personal prejudices and local Arabic
context, meanwhile many Qur’ānic verses do not condone such beating.
The Prophet’s behavior himself never beat his wives.
However, even though some scholars have criticized these pesantren
textbooks, the majority of kyai and pesantren still regard the sanctity of
these works, since they contain Qur’ānic verses and Prophetic traditions.
They regard these Islamic intellectual traditions as religion itself, not as
the product of Muslim scholars’ interpretations (ijtihād). In addition, they
regard criticizing and questioning the views of the ‘ulamā’ as immoral
behavior (sū’ al-adab).23
C. Kyai Husein’s Principles and Methodology in Re-interpreting
the Qur’ān and Islamic Traditions
The basis of Kyai Husein’s framework for reconstruction of gender
22
23

300

Ibid., pp. 63–4.
Ibid., p. 58.

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equality in reading the Qur’ān is the concept of tauḥīd. As it is known,
among the first Muslim scholar who proposed this concept, in relation to
gender relations, is Amina Wadud who calls this tauḥīdic paradigm.24 Kyai
Husein, in his book Ijtihad Kyai Husein, states that the reconstruction of
new understanding on gender relation is the duty in order to uphold the
principle of tauḥīd.25 In another book, Kyai Husein asserts that equality is
the logical consequence of tauḥīd, the unity of God. All humans with all
different backgrounds come from the same Source.26 He further asserts
that the proclamation of tauḥīd has individual and social dimension. The
latter stresses that all humans are equal before God, all have to obey
God and none others.27 Kyai Husein’s elaboration of this concept is also
supported by the explanation provided by Siti Musdah Mulia.28
“The conviction (of tauḥīd) that no human equals Allah and that He has
no offspring or incarnation has given rise to the principle of the equality
of humankind, as all humans are Allah’s creatures. No human is superior
to any other; all are fundamentally equal. No human may be deified in the
sense of being made the source of guidance and support, to be feared,
prayed to, and regarded as unquestionably correct. A king cannot be a
god to his people, a husband cannot be a god to his wife.”29

The elaborations of Kyai Husein and Mulia that in the declaration
of tauḥīd, or shahādat al-tauḥīd, all humans are equal before God, would
be sharper for supporting gender equality with further illustration that
24

See Amina Wadud, Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam (Oxford:
Oneworld, 2006), pp. 24–32; Amina Wadud, “The Ethics of Tawhid over the Ethics
of Qiwamah”, in Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition, ed. by
Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki Al-Sharmani, and Jana Rumminger (London: Oneworld
Publications, 2015), pp. 256–74.
25
Muhammad, Ijtihad Kyai Husein, p. 1.
26
Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 110.
27
Husein Muhammad, Spiritualitas Kemanusiaan: Perspektif Islam Pesantren, ed. by
Mansur Zahri (Yogyakarta; Cirebon: Pustaka Rihlah; Fahmina Institute, 2006), p. 5; See
also Husein Muhammad, “Konsep Dasar Manusia dan Hakikat Pernikahan”, in Keluarga
Sakinah: Kesetaraan Relasi Suami Istri, ed. by A. D Eridani and A. D Kusumaningtyas
(Jakarta: Rahima, 2008), pp. 1–2.
28
Siti Musdah Mulia, “Tauhid: A Source of Inspiration for Gender Justice”,
in Dawrah Fiqh Concerning Women: Manual for a Course on Islam and Gender, ed. by Husein
Muhammad et al. (Cirebon: Fahmina Institute, 2006), pp. 39–59.
29
Ibid., pp. 41-2.

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this concept of tauḥīd, as Wadud states “remov[es] gender asymmetry,
which is a kind of satanic logic or shirk, positing priority or superiority to
men. Instead, women and men must occupy a relationship of horizontal
reciprocity, maintaining the highest place for God in His/Her/Its
uniqueness.”30
With this tauḥīdic paradigm, Wadud would like to replace the
patriarchal framework of the relationship between God – men/husbands
– women/wives, where God is above men, and women are below men.
The latter are the intermediary between God and women, which implies
that women need to obey God as well as men, or that in order to obey
God, they should go through their husbands’ authority and permission.
This patriarchal relationship is described as the vertical relation between
men and women, where God is placed above men, and men above
women.
Instead of this vertical relation between men and women, the
tauḥīdic paradigm proposes the horizontal and equal relation between
men and women, and places God above them. This horizontal relation
then suggests that both women have access directly to God without
men’s intervention, and the relation between men and women are “of
mutual support and reciprocity” between each other, and not of men’s
superiority over the other. This relation shows the egalitarian relationship
between men and women.31
This horizontal relation represents the concept of tauḥīd where no
one is higher than the other before God, and all of them equally obey
only to God. The vertical relation of patriarchal framework, on the other
hand, is considered as some kind of shirk and satanic logic because of
the assertion that beside God, there is other creature who is better and
superior than the other.
In addition to the principle of tauḥīd, Kyai Husein bases his ideas of
gender equality on the universal values of Islam, such as justice (‘adālah),
equality (musāwāh), tolerance (tasāmuḥ), and peace (iṣlāḥ). In another
30

Amina Wadud, “Engaging Tawhid in Islam and Feminisms” International
Feminist Journal of Politics vol. 10, no. 4 (2008), p. 437.
31
For the diagram of egalitarian relationship, see Amina Wadud, “Islam Beyond
Patriarchy Through Gender Inclusive Qur’anic Analysis”, in Wanted: Equality and Justice
in the Muslim Family, ed. by Zainah Anwar (Selangor, Malaysia: Musawah, 2009), pp.
108–9; Wadud, “The Ethics of Tawhid over the Ethics of Qiwamah”, pp. 270–71.  

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occasion, he includes in these universal values the five fundamental
rights, a well-known al-Kulliyyāt al-khams (the Five Principles) proposed
by al-Ghazālī, namely the right to religion (ḥifẓ al-dīn), the right to physical
well-being and life (ḥifẓ al-nafs), the right to knowledge or opinion (ḥifẓ
al-aql), the right to descendent/reproductive rights (ḥifẓ al-nasl/al-‘irḍ),
and the right to wealth/social welfare (ḥifẓ al-mal).
These are, according to Kyai Husein, the universal values of Islam,
which he identifies as the main messages of Meccan verses of the Qur’ān.
He states that “Texts from the Meccan period are mostly concerned
with describing and defining tawhid [sic] and various universal human
values, such as equality, justice, freedom, plurality and human dignity.”32
The Medinan texts, on the other hand, deal with the practical rules and
regulations for society as it existed in Medina at the time, for the people
who were already converted to Islam as well as those who adhered to
their respective other religions.
Here, it is clear that Kyai Husein divides the verses of the Qur’ān
into the verses with universal aims, which he refers to as Meccan verses
or muḥkamāt verses, and particular verses which are confined to specific
context, that is Medinan context. These verses, he categorizes as
mutashābihāt verses, which are interpretable.33 Mas’udi, before Kyai Husein,
also distinguishes these two types of Qur’ānic teachings in his Islam &
Women’s Reproductive Rights.34 Recently, Asma Lamrabet ini her article “An
Egalitarian Reading of the Concepts of Khilafah, Wilayah and Qiwamah”
divides three kinds of Qur’ānic verses: 1) verses with universal aims, 2)
temporary verses that are confined in their application to the context of
revelation, and 3) verses that need reinterpretation in new social contexts.35
Mas’udi and Kyai Husein, I would suggest, combine the second and the
third verses into particular verses.
32

Husein Muhammad, “Re-Reading the Qur’ān: The Relation between Text
and Context”, in Dawrah Fiqh Concerning Women: Manual for a Course on Islam and Gender,
ed. by Husein Muhammad et al. (Cirebon: Fahmina Institute, 2006), p. 82.
33
Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, pp. 123–25.
34
Mas’udi, Islam & Women’s Reproductive Rights, p. 5.
35
Asma Lamrabet, “An Egalitarian Reading of the Concepts of Khilafah,
Wilayah and Qiwamah”, in Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition,
ed. by Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki Al-Sharmani, and Jana Rumminger (London: Oneworld
Publications, 2015), p. 68.

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Since the verses with universal values become the basis of the
Qur’ānic message, the particular verses have to be interpreted in the light
of universal verses. Here Kyai Husein supports his statement by quoting
Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī who states:
“General rules or legal universals are certain, while particular or specific
rules are relative/probable and, therefore, the generals or universals ought
to prevail. … Specific rules should not limit or specify general rules but
may constitute a circumstantial exception to the legal universals.”36

Beside dividing the Qur’ānic verses into universal verses and
particular verses, Kyai Husein also points to two types of Qur’ānic
narrations: the informative or descriptive narration (khabarī) and the
prescriptive narration (ṭalabī).37 The descriptive narration is God’s
information about the facts and realities in a specific context, while the
prescriptive is God’s command to perform or not to perform an action.
This division proves very essential for Kyai Husein, as can be seen later
in this article, in understanding a specific verse, whether it is describing the
reality or prescribing the action.
Another important principle of Kyai Husein’s methodology in
Qur’ānic interpretion is his principle of the gradual phase of Qur’ānic
verses. This concept, which he refers to Asghar Ali Engineer, argues that
the whole Qur’anic verses progress toward the universal values, such as
justice and equality for all humans. Kyai Husein states that in response to
the patriarchal culture of the seventh-century Arabia, the Qur’ān and the
Prophet Muhammad intended to construct a new social culture which is
more egalitarian and just.38 This new construction, however, could not
be realized through revolution and at once, but through evolution and
gradual phases. According to Kyai Husein, this process is called tadrījī or
taqlīlī in the classical Islamic literature.
With these principles, which are actually not new because other
Muslim feminists have discussed and used them, and also with the

36

Muhammad, “Re-Reading the Qur’ān: The Relation between Text and
Context”, p. 91. He refers to al-Shāṭibī, al-Muwāfaqāt, III:261-271.
37
Muhammad, Ijtihad Kyai Husein, p. xvii.
38
Ibid., p. xxxix.

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historical contextual and intra-textual readings of the Qur’ān,39 Kyai
Husein reinterprets the verses of the Qur’ān which have been used for
gender inequality and to justify man’s superiority over women. Qur’ān,
4:34 is often referred to for this justification and also to justify the right
of husband to hit his wife.
The translation of the verse as follow:
Men are qawwāmūn over women according to what God faḍḍala ba‘ḍahum
‘alā ba‘ḍ (has favoured some over some others) and bimā anfaqū (according
to what they spend) from their wealth. Righteous women are qānitāt
(obedient) guarding the unseen according to what God has guarded.
Those [women] whose nushūz (rebellion) you fear, admonish them, and
abandon them in bed, and iḍribūhunna (strike them). If they obey you, do
not pursue a strategy against them. (Qur’an, 4:34)

When discussing this verse, Kyai Husein refers to the classical
exegesis of al-Zamakhsharī, al-Rāzī, Ibn Kathīr, as well as to the modern
tafsīr of Muḥammad ‘Abduh, Ibn ‘Āshūr, al-Ṭabāṭabā’ī and finds that
all of them argue for male’s superiority because of his inherent natural
quality.40 Kyai Husein is not as comprehensive as Omaima Abou-Bakr in
discussing the evolution of patriarchal construct of qiwāmah in Islamic
tradition, from al-Ṭabarī to the modernist mufassir, which according to
her consists of four discursive states.41 The first stage which starts with
al-Ṭabarī was the transformation of the descriptive notion of qiwāmah
into the prescriptive and normative conception of qiyam. This means
that starting with Ṭabarī, qiwāmah was understood as men’s task of ahl
al-qiyam, that is to watch over the women. The second stage was identified
with al-Zamakhsharī, al-Rāzi and other mufassirs in their period who list a
number of reasons and justifications for the divinely ordained superiority
39

Aysha A. Hidayatullah has discussed Muslim feminists’ (especially women)
different approaches to the Qur’ān in her works. See Aysha A. Hidayatullah, “Feminist
Interpretation of the Qur’an in a Comparative Feminist Setting”, Journal of Feminist
Studies in Religion, vol. 30, no. 2 (2014), pp. 115–29; Aysha A. Hidayatullah, Feminist Edges
of the Qur’an (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014).
40
Muhammad, Fiqh Perempuan, pp. 8–10.
41
Omaima Abou-Bakr, “The Interpretive Legacy of Qiwamah as an Exegetical
Construct”, in Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition, ed. by
Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki Al-Sharmani, and Jana Rumminger (London: Oneworld
Publications, 2015), pp. 44–64.

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of men. In the third stage, the explanation of men’s superiority expands
from the domestic to the public sphere. Ibn Kathīr, for example, by using
the ḥadīth lan yufliḥa qawmun wallathum imra’atun, argues against women’s
leadership. He and other mufassirs of ma’thūr method, also strengthen
their justification of men’s superiority with many ḥadīth. Finally, in the
modern period, the mufassirs add the justification of men’s superiority
with the ideology of domesticity and scientific explanation of biological
difference between men and women.
Kyai Husein does not extensively discuss these different
interpretations, but he is in agreement with the scholars’ findings that
these tafsīrs are the reflection of the patriarchal culture of the community,
or to use the term of Ayesha Chaudhry “the patriarchal cosmology”42
and worldview of the mufassirs as well as the community of that period.
It might be added that all of these mufassirs are male, who might very
well be influenced by their maleness.
The present context and culture, however, have changed. Kyai
Husein, for example, finds that many of the present-day women are
superior over men in terms of their intellectual reasoning or even
physical strength. This changing reality occurs because the culture
provides opportunities, even though still limited, for women to develop
and actualize their capacities.43 Therefore, according to Kyai Husein, the
verse 4:34 has to be classified as “particular verse” which is confined to a
specific context, and has to be interpreted in the light of other verses with
universal aims, such as Qur’an,. 49:13, Innā khalaqnākum min dhakarin wa
unthā wa ja‘alnākum shu‘ūban wa qabā‘ila li-ta‘ārafū, which asserts equality of
human beings regardless of their sex, race and ethnicity, and Qur’an, 9:71,
wa l-mu’minūna wa l-mu’minātu ba‘ḍuhum awliyā’u ba‘ḍ, which lays the ground
for gender relation and mutual assistance between men and women.44
This Qur’an, 9:71 and other verses with universal values which urge
equality between men and women, according to Lamrabet, unfortunately
“have been marginalized in Islamic thought. They are rarely cited and
are even at times completely overlooked in favor of other verses that
are more difficult to interpret or whose application was contingent on
42

Chaudhry, Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition.
Muhammad, Fiqh Perempuan, pp. 11–12.
44
Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 238.

43

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the time of revelation.”45
Using his other principles in Qur’ānic interpretation, Kyai Husein
further argues that Qur’an, 4:34 has to be qualified as an informative verse,
which describes the social reality of the seventh century Arabia associated
with the patriarchal culture.46 This verse informs the reality of women’s
subordination through men’s being qawwām. But this text, Kyai Husein
insists, is not prescribing and justifying the subordination of women. It
is rather accommodating and speaking about the social reality during
the Qur’ānic revelation.47 Kyai Husein’s classification of descriptive and
prescriptive verses of the Qur’ān, and his inclusion of Qur’an, 4:34 as
descriptive verse, seems to echo other Muslim scholars’ statement. Amina
Wadud, for example, in her article “The Ethics of Tawhid over the Ethics
of Qiwamah”, writes: “It is my contention that verse 4:34 may describe a
scenario popular at the time of revelation, but that it does not prescribe it
as an irrefutable and irreplaceable commandment that must be encoded
in the law and practiced by all who adhere to Islam as their way of life.”48
Having argued for the informative narration of Qur’an, 4:34,
Kyai Husein further analyzes the reason of men’s superiority. The verse
gives two reasons: bimā faḍḍala llāhu ba‘ḍahum ‘alā ba‘ḍ and bimā anfaqū min
amwālihim. The first reason is that God has favored some of them over
the others. Kyai Husein finds that the Qur’ān does not state explicitly
what God’s preference or favor is. It is the exegetes who interpret this
to mean men’s superiority because of their physical and intellectual
superiority.49 In addition, Kyai Husein refers to the word ba‘ḍ which
indicates that the superiority is not absolute and universal. Some people
(men or women) excel over some other people. To illustrate his point,
Kyai Husein takes the examples of ‘Ā’ishah and Khadījah as factual facts
for women’s intellectual superiority. Therefore, according to Kyai Husein,
45

Lamrabet, “An Egalitarian Reading of the Concepts of Khilafah, Wilayah
and Qiwamah”, p. 71.
46
Muhammad, Ijtihad Kyai Husein, pp. xvii–xviii.
47
Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 179. See also p. 241.
48
Wadud, “The Ethics of Tawhid over the Ethics of Qiwamah”, p. 268. Italics
is mine.
49
Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 241.

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this superiority is not inherent, absolute and universal.50
As for the second reason of men’s superiority, the Qur’ān states
because of what they (men) spend from their wealth. For Kyai Husein,
this verse describes men’s “functional responsibility” to meet the need
of women and their families. 51 Since the men acted as the breadwinner
in the patriarchal society, it is their responsibility to provide the wealth.
It is interesting to note that Kyai Husein uses the term “responsibility.”
Lamrabet seeks to show further that financial responsibility is not a
privilege given by God, but rather a duty;52 it is not an honor but a
responsibility that has to be undertaken by the breadwinners.
Therefore, in this interpretation, Kyai Husein agrees with other
Muslim feminists’ views that the authority and superiority in Qur’an, 4:34
is “conditioned qiwāmah,”53 which rejects the inherent and permanent
right of authority, either to men or women.
The second issue which has been fiercely debated by many scholars
is the second part of Qur’an, 4:34, which is the issue of the husband’s
right to physically hit the wifely nushūz. Chaudhry has comprehensively
discuss this issue in her Domestic Violence and Islamic Tradition, comparing
the monolithic patriarchal interpretation of the mufassirs in medieval
period with the diversity of patriarchal-egalitarian approaches to the
Qur’ān in modern period.54 She classifies the modern approaches into
traditionalist, neo-traditionalist, progressive, and reformist based on
the criteria 1) which worldview – patriarchal or egalitarian – is held, 2)
whether the pre-colonial or medieval Islamic tradition is still upheld or
50

Lamrabet would further argues that the text is without a gender specification.
If there had been a gender specification, the verse would have been bimā faḍḍala llāhu
ba’ḍahum ‘alā ba’ḍihinna. See Lamrabet, “An Egalitarian Reading of the Concepts of
Khilafah, Wilayah and Qiwamah”, p. 82.
51
Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 241.
52
Lamrabet, “An Egalitarian Reading of the Concepts of Khilafah, Wilayah
and Qiwamah”, pp. 82–3.
53
Omaima Abou-Bakr, “The Interpretive Legacy of Qiwamah as an Exegetical
Construct”, p. 58; Rahman, “The Status of Women in the Qur’ān”; Asghar Ali Engineer,
“Islam, Women, and Gender Justice”, in What Men Owe to Women Men’s Voices from World
Religions, ed. by John C. Raines and Daniel C. Maguire (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 2001), pp. 109–28.
54
Chaudhry, Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition.

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rejected, and 3) is it permissible for a husband to hit his wife.55
Kyai Husein as can be seen from his discussion above, as well as, in
this issue, could not be classified as the traditionalist or neo-traditionalist
for his insistence on egalitarian approaches to the Qur’ānic verses and
Islamic tradition. I posit him to belong to the progressive side since he
does not and could not depart from the Islamic tradition, as has been
implemented by the fourth group, i.e., reformists. As Chaudhry explains,
the difference between the progressive and the reformist approaches is
that while the former prefers the egalitarian worldview by asserting “the
minority or imagined opinions” of the Islamic tradition which support
the egalitarian view in order to “retain authority in mainstream religious
community,” the latter, on the other hand, is willing to reject any tradition
to maintain the egalitarian worldview.
In his interpretation of Qur’an, 4:34, Kyai Husein refers to the
story of Ḥabībah bint Zayd who was hit by her husband. In the story,
the Prophet himself was inclined to give the right of retaliation to the
wife, but God willed differently. From this story, Kyai Husein stresses that
this verse of the Qur’ān actually progresses towards justice, by outlining
some steps before hitting the wife. Even in this last step wa ’ḍribūhunna,
the Prophet preferred justice by giving the right to retaliate. But, since
God willed differently, the Prophet advised the punishment should not
result in bodily injury. Here, Kyai Husein refers to Naṣr Ḥāmid Abu
Zayd’s statement: “For sure, the Prophet’s rejection of this husband’s
behavior shows his firm belief in justice and equality. But because the
audience at the time was not able to understand, let alone support this
principle, God have us with this text.”56 In his final analysis, these steps,
for Kyai Husein, prove the gradual change to move toward discouraging
the beating, and gradually abolishing it.
Furthermore, as has been discussed above, this Qur’ānic verse
belongs to the informative text (khabarī) that describes the context of the
revelation. It must not, Kyai Husein warns, be taken to mean normative
55

Ibid., pp. 139–40.
Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd, Dawā’ir Al-Khawf: Qirā’ah Fī Khiṭāb Al-Mar’ah (Beirut:
al-Markaz al-Thaqāfī al-’Arabī, 1999), p. 212. Muhammad, “Re-Reading the Qur’ān:
The Relation between Text and Context”, p. 90.
56

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and prescriptive for all times.57
With these principles, Kyai Husein reinterprets the Qur’ānic
verses. As a believing Muslim, he insists that the Qur’ān is absolute, the
interpretation of the Qur’ān, on the other hand is relative. That is the
reason he blames the persisting gender inequality in Islam to the biased
patriarchal interpretation of the Qur’ān, and not to the Qur’ān itself.
In Kyai Husein’s view, the Qur’ānic particular verses which describe
particular contexts – some scholars call this “anti-women”,58 “hierarchical
and androcentric”59, and “hierarchy”60 verses, have to be interpreted
historically and contextually in the light of verses with general values.
As can be seen, Kyai Husein’s ideas and methodology of
interpretation have similar ideas with the existing gender egalitarian
approaches in interpreting the Qur’ān. However, Kyai Husein does not
end his discussion with the reinterpretation of the Qur’ān. His other
main concern and analysis are also with fiqh, the traditional Islamic
jurisprudence, which lays the support for gender hierarchy. Kecia Ali has
warned progressive Muslims not to ignore jurisprudence. She invites them
to analyze the rules and methods of traditional jurisprudence, especially
the framework and the assumptions behind this fiqh61, and Kyai Husein
has ventured to discuss that.
He states clearly that the fiqh on women issues are the product
of patriarchal culture.62 To prove his point, he, for example, takes the
definition of marriage (nikāḥ). The four schools of fiqh define nikāḥ as a
transaction which legalizes the ownership of women’s body by men. It
states Inna ‘aqd al-nikāḥ waḍa‘ahu al-shāri‘ li-yartab ‘alayhi intifā‘ al-zawj bi-buḍ‘
57

Muhammad, Ijtihad Kyai Husein, p. 208.
Asma Barlas, “Secular and Feminist Critiques of the Qur’an: AntiHermeneutics as Liberation?”, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, vol. 32, no. 2 (2016),
p. 112,
59
Kecia Ali, Sexual Ethics and Islam Feminist Reflections on Qur’an, Hadith, and
Jurisprudence (London: Oneworld, 2006), p. 152.
60
Hidayatullah, “Feminist Interpretation of the Qur’an in a Comparative
Feminist Setting”, p. 46.
61 Kecia Ali, “Progressive Muslims and Islamic Jurisprudence: The Necessity
for Critical Engagement with Marriage and Divorce Law”, in Progressive Muslims: On
Justice, Gender and Pluralism, ed. by Omid Safi (Oxford: Oneworld, 2003), p. 159.
62
Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 169.
58

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al-zawjah wa sā’ir badanihā min ḥayth al-taladhdhudh (the marital contract is
ordained by God (al-Shāri‘) to provide the right of husband to benefit
from the wife’s vulva and all her body for sexual pleasure).63 In this
definition, Kyai Husein finds that the marriage is understood as tamlīk,
ownership. Because of this definition, not only are the wives deprived
from the sexual right over their husbands, but they are also dispossessed
over the control of their bodies.64 In another book, Kyai Husein argues
that this definition of marriage shows that man can have sexual pleasure
at any time and the wife has to perform her duty. The sexual pleasure is
the husband right, and the wife’s duty.65 This contract (‘aqd) of ownership
(milk) that is granted to the husband over the wife is the framework which
Ali has criticized as the root of the problem in husband and wife relation.
This ownership is realized through the payment of the dower (mahr) by
the husband. In legal texts, the dower or mahr is the price. Ali refers to
the definition of al-Shāfi‘ī which states that the dower is a price for the
woman’s vulva (thaman al-buḍ‘).66
Consequently, through this ownership, Ali argues that the husband
has a control and authority over the wife: the husband has the right to
derive sexual pleasure from his wife and the wife has to provide her sexual
availability. The husband “could restrict his wife’s movement in order to
keep her available to himself, including forbidding her to go the mosque
or to visit her parents.”67 Because of the same reason, the wife could not
fast without his permission. There is a prophetic ḥadīth which is cited
by al-Shāfi‘ī “It is not lawful for a woman to voluntarily fast a day if her
husband is present except with his permission.” The reason for this
prohibition is to ensure the wife’s sexual availability.68 Conversely, if the
wife refuses to have sex, she can be considered as nāshiza, wifely nushūz.
63

Ibid., p. 45.
Ibid., p. 169.
65
Muhammad, Ijtihad Kyai Husein, p. 14.
66
Kecia Ali, Sexual Ethics and Islam Feminist Reflections on Qur’an, Hadith, and
Jurisprudence, p. 4.
67
Kecia Ali, “Progressive Muslims and Islamic Jurisprudence: The Necessity
for Critical Engagement with Marriage and Divorce Law”, p. 170.
68
Kecia Ali, Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2010), p. 194.
64

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In legal fiqh texts, in addition to the wife’s refusal to have sex with her
husband, the nushūz results from her departure from the house without
her husband’s permission.
It is quite understandable from this framework then that the
assumption behind the subordinate views in Nawāwī’s Uqūd al-Lujjayn,
which command the wife to obey her husband, to give in her body
whenever her husband needs, not to go outside the house except with
husband’s permission, and even command the husband to hit his wifely
nushūz, is that the wife has been owned (milk) by husband in exchange
with dower (mahr) payment legalized in marital contract, and therefore,
she has to be sexually available at any time.
It is for this reason that Kyai Husein does not regard mahr, dower
as a price of woman.69 Furthermore, he and other progressive Muslims
have proposed that marriage or, specifically, marital contract, aqd al-nikāḥ,
– is not a form of religious covenant or worship (‘ibādah), as has been so
long traditionally held, but as mu‘āmalah, a contract based on agreement
of both parties. In addition, they recommended that the dower/dowry
(mahr) may be given either by male or the female.70 This proposal, which
is known as Counter Legal Draft of Kompilasi Hukum Islam (CLDKHI), will be discussed further.
These are some of Kyai Husein’s reinterpretation of Qur’ānic
verses and Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) concerning women issues, which
demonstrate his effort to criticize and change the oppressive and
subordinate views against women. These ideas are considered radically
progressive in the context of pesantren. His important role is even more
visible, when we take into account his activism.

69

Muhammad, Fiqh Perempuan, p. 128.
See the discussion and the list of the proposed articles of Counter Legal
Draft of Kompilasi Hukum Islam in Marzuki Wahid, “Reformation of Islamic Law in
Post-New Order Indonesia: A Legal and Political Study of the Counter Legal Draft of
the Islamic Law Compilation”, in Islam in Contention: Rethinking Islam and State in Indonesia,
ed. by Ota Atushi, Okamoto Masaaki, and Ahmad Suaedy (Jakarta: Wahid Institute
-CSEAS-CAPAS, 2010), pp. 77–120.
70

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D. Kyai Husein’s Feminist/Gender Activism71
Kyai Husein is not only a scholar, but also involves in gender
activism to apply his gender equal Qur’ānic interpretation, confront it
with the traditional patriarchal understanding and “the lived realities
of Muslim women”72 specifically in pesantren and in Indonesian Islam
in general. Nelly van Doorn-Harder calls this activism “Qur’ān-based
activism,”73 where the Qur’ān with its gender equal values becomes the
basis of the activism.
Following Badran who has identified three modes of feminist
expression,74 the last part of this article will discuss Kyai Husein’s works
and activism based on the second and third modes. The first mode, which
is in the form of feminist writing, has been discussed above in relation
to Kyai Husein’s ideas and work on feminism.
The second and the third modes of feminism are in the forms of
the everyday activism in social services, education and professions, and
also in organized movement activism. Being a Muslim scholar and a kyai
71

The more comprehensive discussion on this activism can be refered to Nelly
van Doorn-Harder, Women Shaping Islam: Indonesian Women Reading the Qu’ran (Urbana
(Ill.): University of Illinois Press, 2006).
72
This term is from Amina Wadud, “Can One Critique Cancel All Previous
Efforts?”, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, vol. 32, no. 2 (2016), p. 131; These lived
stories of Muslim women become the basis of Musawah’s Global Life Stories Project.
See Mulki Al-Sharmani and Jana Rumminger, “Understanding Qiwamah and Wilayah
through Life Stories”, in Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition, ed.
by Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki Al-Sharmani, and Jana Rumminger (London: Oneworld
Publications, 2015), pp. 219–55. Kyai Husein and other Indonesian Muslim feminsits
are also involved in this Muswah’s Project.
73
Pieternella (Nelly) Van Doorn-Harder, “Translating Text to Context: Muslim
Women Activists in Indonesia”, in Women, Leadership, and Mosques: Changes in Contemporary
Islamic Authority, ed. by Masooda Bano and Hilary Kalmbach (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp.
413–35; Julianne Hammer’s article in the same volume describes it as “embodied tafsīr.”
See Juliane Hammer, “Activism as Embodied Tafsīr: Negotiating Women’s Authority,
Leadership, and Space in North America”, in Women, Leadership, and Mosques: Changes in
Contemporary Islamic Authority, ed. by Masooda Bano and Hilary Kalmbach (Leiden: Brill,
2012), pp. 457–80.
74
Badran, “Feminism”; The identification of the three modes is from Sa’diyya
Shaikh, “Transforming Feminism: Islam, Women and Gender Justice”, in Progressive
Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism, ed. by Omid Safi (Oxford: Oneworld, 2003),
p. 157.

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of pesantren, Kyai Husein has been involved in women/gender movement
in pesantren community. Since 1995 he has been a regular resource person
with the activism of P3M (Center for the Development of Pesantren
and Society). According to Kyai Husein,75 P3M was the first institution
which advocates women’s rights in Islam targeted specifically to pesantren,
because of its central role in community development. The main program
of P3M is called Pelatihan Fiqh al-Nisa untuk Penguatan Hak-Hak Reproduksi
Perempuan, in many pesantrens in the regions of Java and Madura. Here,
Kyai Husein presents and discusses his new reinterpretation of the Qur’ān
and fiqh on women issues with pesantren leaders (kyai and and also bu nyai,
the wife of kyai) and teachers.
The involvement of respected Muslim scholars, such as Kyai Husein
in this women movement program is very crucial since it can provide
“credibility and authority to activists’ calls for new reinterpretations,”76
because previously, women movement was mainly led and conducted
by women activists. In addition, in order to avoid of being labelled as
Western feminist program, the training uses the language and idioms of
Islam, or even Arabic, for example, instead of saying “women’s rights”
they used the Arabic term ḥuqūq al-ummahāt.77 As is common knowledge,
kyai and pesantren mostly utilize kitab kuning which is written in Arabic,
therefore, in order for the training to be successful and for attracting
their participation, the training program has to utilize Islamic language
and idiom.
The issues discussed in P3M training cover Islam and gender,
women’s rights, including women’s reproductive rights. This training
presents views which argue against the existing discourse in Islamic
tradition (fiqh) on husband-wife relationship by emphasizing women’s
reproductive rights.78 The result of this training is Mas’udi’s Islam dan
75

Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 71.
Clarissa Adamson, “Gendered Anxieties: Islam, Women’s Rights, and Moral
Hierarchy in Java”, Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 1 (2007), p. 12.
77
Rosalia Sciortino, Lies M. Marcoes-Natsir, and Masdar F. Mas’udi, “Learning
from Islam: Advocacy of Reproductive Rights in Indonesian Pesantren”, Reproductive
Health Matters, vol. 4, no. 8 (1996), pp. 86–96.
78
See further discussion in Nina Nurmila, “Indonesian Muslims’ Discourse of
Husband-Wife Relationship”, Al-Jami’ah: Journal of Islamic Studies, vol. 51, no. 1 (2013),
pp. 61–79.
76

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Hak-hak Reproduksi Perempuan published in 1997, and Menakar ‘Harga’
Perempuan: Eksplorasi Lebih Lanjut atas Hak-hak Reproduksi Perempuan dalam
Islam, edited by Syafiq Hasyim and published in 1999, which consists of
papers presented at the training.
It is important to note that this training of women fiqh then was taken
over by Rahima, the Center for Education and Information on Islam and
Women’s Rights, which was founded in Jakarta in 2000. The establishment
of this Center was caused by the departure of some members from P3M,
since its head, Mas’udi, practiced polygamy. According to them, this
practice betrays gender movement and marginalizes women. The Rahima
Center was established by Muslim scholars and Muslim women activists,
including ibu Shinta Nuriyah Abdurrahman Wahid, Husein Muhammad,
Lies Marcoes-Natsir, Farha Ciciek, etc.
In addition to provide Women Fiqh training, Rahima holds a
program to prepare and produce Female ‘Ulamā’. The participants are
graduates of pesantren who can read kitab kuning. During the program, they
will be equipped with critical reading methodology and gender analysis,
and hopefully, according to Kyai Husein, at the end of the program
“they are able to have [argumentative] debate with male ‘ulamā’ in Baḥth
al-Masā’il, discussion forum, of NU, either in local or national level.”79
In 1998, Kyai Husein, together with other Muslim scholars from
Forum Kajian Kitab Kuning (FK3: Association of Kitab Kuning Studies),
under the leadership of ibu Sinta Nuriah, commented and evaluated (ta‘līq
wa takhrīj) the book by Shaikh al-Nawāwī, entitled Kitāb Sharḥ ‘Uqūd alLujjayn, which represents the most prerequisite textbook in pesantren. The
book, as has been discussed previously, contains misogynistic views and
has been transmitted to the students for a long period. As the result, in
2002, they published their findings in a book called Ta‘līq wa Takhrīj ‘alā
Sharḥ ‘Uqūd al-Lujjan. The book is written and published in Arabic, for the
consumption of kyai and pesantren. Later in that year, the book was also
published in Indonesian language, entitled Wajah Baru Relasi Suami-Istri.80
79

Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 81.
According to Nurmila, in addition to Wajah Baru Relasi Suami-Istri, they
also publish Kembang Setaman Perkawinan: Analisis Kritis Kitab ’Uqud al-Lujjayn in 2005,
and Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir published Mamba’us Sa’adah. Unfortunately, I could not
access these books. See Nurmila, “Indonesian Muslims’ Discourse of Husband-Wife
Relationship”, p. 74.
80

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Kyai Husein himself has discussed Nawāwī’s Kitāb ‘Uqūd al-Lujjayn, for
example in his two books: the last part of his Fiqh Perempuan published in
2001, and Chapter Three on “Perempuan dalam Kitab-Kitab Pesantren”
of his Perempuan, Islam & Negara published in 2016.
In addition to Rahima and FK3, Kyai Husein involves with Puan
Amal Hayati Foundation, which is also under the leadership of bu Sinta
Nuriyah. Puan is the abbreviation of Pesantren untuk pemberdayaan
perempuan (Pesantren for women empowerment), meanwhile Amal
Hayati stands for “harapan kehidupan” (hope for life).81 This NGO was
established on July 3, 2000 in Jakarta and serves as women’s crisis center.
It has a network with more than 10 pesantrens in Java and outside Java,
but, as van Doorn-Harder describes it, the total number is “a mere drop
in the ocean of Indonesia’s 14,000 registered pesantren.”82
These three institutions: Rahima, FK3 and Puan Amal Hayati, are
related with pesantren and work to empower pesantren. According to Farha
Ciciek, woman activist who is involved in these three NGOs, that they
have distributed their job description quite fairly. FK3 is more concerned
with religious discourse in terms of critical study and reinterpretation
of kitab kuning texts which discriminate women, Rahima, on the other
hand, is more concerned with the socialization of women discourse with
gender perspective through training, seminar, and publications. Puan
Amal Hayati, in its turn, stands as women’s crisis center to give counseling
for women victims of public or domestic violence.83
Besides his involvement with these three NGOs in Jakarta, Kyai
Husein also establishes the Fahmina Institute, an NGO, which aims at
promoting social and gender justice in Cirebon in 2001. The programs
of Fahmina cover Islam and democracy, Islam and gender and Islam
and community empowerment. The program is held in many pesantren
in West Java in the form of critical studies of religion through training
and discussion. They have also held training on Islam and Gender for
81

Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 81.
Van Doorn-Harder, “Translating Text to Context: Muslim Women Activists
in Indonesia”, p. 421.
83
See the interview with Farha Ciciek in Jajat Burhanudin and Oman
Fathurahman (eds.), Tentang Perempuan Islam: Wacana dan Gerakan, (Jakarta: Gramedia
Pustaka Utama and PPIM, 2004), p. 126.
82

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women activists who lack of Islamic knowledge on gender issues. Because
of this training, Fahmina publishes Dawrah Fiqh Perempuan, a training
manual for women’s fiqh directed for secular gender activists.84 Beside
Dawrah Fiqh Perempuan manual, Fahmina publishes a book called Fikih
Anti Traficking: jawaban atas Berbagai Kasus Kejahatan Perdagangan Manusia
dalam Perspektif Hukum Islam, as a response to women and children
trafficking in Indonesia.
Apart from pesantren community, Kyai Husein regularly becomes a
resource person in gender trainings and workshops in women’s studies
centers of some universities. According to Alimatul Qibtiyah, at the
beginning, the main objectives of these centers which were established
during the late 1980s is to provide research data on women issues, such
as women’s rights, and women’s needs for the government. Since 2000,
the centers, especially in Islamic universities, started to conduct researches
on misogynist Islamic texts and provide new egalitarian interpretation
of gender in Islam.85 The goal is not only “to infuse the universities’
curricula with gender awareness,”86 but also to the mainstream gender
within the policies of Islamic universities.
In addition to actively participate in gender training in pesantrens
and Islamic universities, in 2004, Kyai Husein, together with a group of
Muslim scholars and activists from Lembaga Kajian Agama dan Jender
(The Institute for Religious and Gender Research), led by Musdah Mulia,
formulated the Counter Legal Draft of Kompilasi Hukum Islam. The
group criticize the discriminatory clauses of the existing Indonesian
marriage law No. 1/1974 and Presidential Decree No. 1/1991 on KHI
relating to age at marriage, the stipulation of male household heads, the
requirement for a walī to be a male, differential divorce rights, and the
continued legal support for polygamy. They also want to revisit unequal
84

The book is written and published in Bahasa Indonesia in 2006, and then
also translated into English with a “Foreword” from Ziba Mir-Hosseini in 2006. See
Husein Muhammad et al., (eds.) Dawrah Fiqh Concerning Women: Manual for a Course on
Islam and Gender (Cirebon: Fahmina Institute, 2006).
85
See the discussion in Alimatul Qibtiyah, “Women’s Studies and Gender
Studies Centres: How They Contribute to Feminism”, Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies:
Alam-E-Niswan, vol. 19, no. 2 (2012), p. 170.
86
Van Doorn-Harder, “Translating Text to Context: Muslim Women Activists
in Indonesia”, p. 422.

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inheritance. The group would like to propose “a set of formulations on
Islamic law which upholds values of humanity, respects women’s rights,
spreads wisdom and kindness, and achieves wellbeing for all of human
kind.”87 Their proposal is very progressive, departing from the traditional
views. They list 18 changes in marriage law, including the permissibility
of woman to be a walī in the marriage, the prohibition of polygamy, and
the permissibility of inter-religious marriage. They also propose the equal
portion of inheritance 1:1 or 2:2 between male and female.
Kyai Husein argues that the Indonesia Marriage Law mostly base
their stipulation on fiqh books that are still discriminative to women.
He therefore proposes family law which is more protective and just for
women from the Islamic tradition itself, through the process of selection
(intiqā’ī) and contextualization (ijtihādī).88 The first strategy is to search and
find selectively, either from the four schools of Islamic law or outside
these schools, the views which respect women’s rights. He finds, for
example, that in Mālikī school as held by the Family Law of Marocco,
Mudawwanah al-Usrah, the minimum age at marriage is 18 years old for
both male and female, through the consideration of their reproductive
health, psychological readiness and intellectual maturity. He admits,
however, that this strategy is very eclectic and not the ideal one. The
preferred one is the contextual interpretation of the Islamic traditions.
As has been proposed by Fazlur Rahman’s “double movement,”89 the
contextual interpretation starts by studying the socio-cultural, historical
and political context90 behind the formulation of these fiqh texts in
order to find the ratio legis (moral ideal) of the specific issue. This moral

87

Wahid, “Reformation of Islamic Law in Post-New Order Indonesia: A Legal
and Political Study of the Counter Legal Draft of the Islamic Law Compilation.”
88
Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, p. 156.
89
Fazlur Rahman, Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), pp. 6–7. Kyai Husein does not state
explicitly that he quotes or refers to Fazlur Rahman, but it is quite clear that this
contextual interpretation belongs to Rahman’s.
90
Abdullah Saeed calls this “macro context.” See Abdullah Saeed, Reading the
Qur’an in the Twenty-First Century a Contextualist Approach (New York, N.Y.: Routledge,
2014), p. 5.

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objective is then to be embodied to the present socio-historical context.91
Finally, Kyai Husein’s involvement in activism against women’s
oppression becomes more influential when he was elected and served as
a Commissioner in National Commission on Violence Against Women
(Komnas Perempuan), for two terms 2007-2014. The KP, Commission,
deals with basic human rights of women in Indonesia, on all sorts of
violence against women. Specifically, its objective is to prevent, handle,
and abolish all forms of violence against women. Kyai Husein and KP, for
example, criticizes the “institutionalization of discrimination” (pelembagaan
diskriminasi)92 against women in many governmental policies and regional
regulations throughout Indonesia.
In 2009, they found that 64 out of 154 regional policy/legislations
discriminate women,93 in the form of restricting women’s right of
freedom of expression with the regional policy on dress code, reducing
their rights of legal protection and certainty due to the criminalization
with the regional policy on prostitution, eliminating their rights of legal
protection and certainty with the regional policy on khalwat (intermingling
between men and women), and neglecting their rights of protection with
the regional policy on migrant workers. They further recommend to the
government to abolish these discriminate policies because they contradict
human right and also women’s right. Kyai Husein, as a Muslim scholar,
further complements the argument from religious and especially Islamic
tradition perspective.
After the completion of his two terms in KP, Kyai Husein continues
his daily activism in pesantren, higher education institutions, as well as
in organized women movements. For his service, he has been granted
many awards regionally, nationally and internationally. Regionally, he was
awarded “The Figures of Women’s Empowerment” by the Regent of
Cirebon district in 2003. Internationally, he was awarded “Heroes to End
Modern Day-Slavery” by the US Department of State in 2006 for his
91

I am afraid that Kyai Husein mistakenly states that the ratio legis might
become irrelevant because of the changing contexts. See Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam
& Negara, p. 159. It is not the ratio legis that changes but the legal provision.
92
This term is from Kamala Chandrakirana, the founder and the past
Chairwoman of KP. See Ibid., pp. 133–4.
93
Ibid. For the KP’s repot see, http://www.komnasperempuan.go.id/atas-namaotonomi-daerah-pelembagaan-diskriminasi-dalam-tatanan-negara-bangsa-indonesia-2/.

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fight against human trafficking.94 His Fahmina Institute in Cirebon was
the finalist for “Humanitarian Award for Faith Based Entrepreneurship:
Opus Prize” in Georgetown University, Washington DC in 2013.95 These
awards prove the contribution of Kyai Husein’s works in his engagement
with human, especially women empowerment in Indonesia.
E. Concluding Remarks
In addition to the positive reception, for sure, there are negative
responses to Kyai Husein’s ideas and activism. His ideas have stirred
debates and controversies among religious leaders, kyais, of pesantren.
Kyai Husein was summoned to Pesantren Lirboyo Kediri East Java, his
almamater, to take account of his ideas to his senior kyais. He has been
questioned and examined by these senior ‘ulamā’. Kyai Husein presented
his ideas on gender equality based on his understanding of the Qur’ān
supported by Islamic intellectual tradition, kitab kuning. At the end, most
of the kyais could receive his ideas, but with a reservation that he could
not disseminate his ideas to the wider public.
The publication of the critical study of ‘Uqūd al-Lujjayn has also
stimulated some negative response from traditional ‘ulamā’ in East Java.
They published a book, entitled Menguak Kebatilan dan Kebohongan Sekte
FK3 dalam Buku Wajah Baru Relasi Suami-Istri: Telaah Kitab Uqud al-Lujjan.
They accused the authors of the book to have been influenced and
invaded by Western thought and have distorted Islam.96 The proposal
of CLD KHI was also rejected because of its radical progressive views.
Some group of Muslim with fundamentalism leanings furthermore
came to forcibly lock the office of Fahmina Institute in May 2006,97
because they accused Fahmina Institute for disseminating deviant views
which are contradictory to Islam.
These are some negative responses of Indonesian conservative
Muslims towards Kyai Husein and women/gender activist movement
94

See “Kyai Husein Muhammad - U.S. Department of State Trafficking in
Persons Report Heroes”, n.d., http://www.tipheroes.org/kyai-husein-muhammad/.
95
“Opus Prize Awards Ceremony”, n.d., https://berkleycenter.georgetown.
edu/events/opus-prize-awards-ceremony.
96
Muhammad, Perempuan, Islam & Negara, pp. 82–3.
97
Ibid., p. 91.

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in pesantren. The influence of Kyai Husein and this feminist movement
in pesantren, however, is very significant. Many graduates of women fiqh
training continue their networks to gender mainstreaming in pesantren
and also in local community. They establish many women movement
and also crisis women centers in Pesantren. Kyai Husein admits that it is
difficult to change the patriarchal views in pesantren because these views
have been deeply rooted and transmitted through generations. It is even
more difficult to change if the kyais, the religious leaders of pesantren,
have conservative and exclusive understanding of Islam. Kyai Husein
believes that the success of gender mainstreaming in pesantren depends
on the role of kyai, because he is the most authoritative in pesantren. The
openness of kyai with new ideas will pave the way for social change in
the community.

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