- Authors: Hary Widyantoro
- From: Universitas Gadjah Mada
Abstract:
Since LGBT questions have become increasingly visible in terms of civil and human rights and religious lives, many scholars such as Kecia Ali and Scott Kugle are rethinking the place of LGBT people in religious faiths, including within Islam. A similar process is happening in Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia. This study focuses on how scholar-activists from Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic University, Jepara, Indonesia, and waria (transgender women) from the Pesantren Waria al- Fatah, Yogyakarta, discuss waria discourse in new ways that challenge dominant assumptions about what place, if any, there is for sexual minorities in Islam. This pesantren (school for learning Islam) was founded in 2007 to be a place for waria to learn and practice religion since they face difficulties finding such a place. This paper argues that this rethinking waria discourse, is influenced by global concepts of Islamic liberation theology and of ahl sunnah wa al-jama?ah (adherent of the prophet and his companions) in seeing waria, within local context, Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesian Muslims Student Movement, and Islam Indonesia, that allows waria to be subjects of knowledge, of religiosities, and of their beings. This paper is based on interview with the scholar activists from the Syari?ah Faculty of Nahdlatul Ulama University of Jepara and waria santri, and on participant observation in their monthly discussions. The study uses the term ‘subjectivity’ to understand how the activists’ agency plays role in rethinking waria discourse, and to see the geneology beyond rethinking process.
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