ayaan_beni

By Beni Bevly

Prior to 1999, there were three things that were not allowed to be criticized and touched in Indonesia. They were Suharto and his regime, military, and religion (Islam). During the reformation period, which occured thereafter, the public and mass media have regained their freedom to address their concerns, but there is one thing that is still likely to be untouchable: Islam.

Islam, Muslims and their traditions were brought up frankly, honestly and with no reservation by Ayaan Hirsi Ali – an international activist – yesterday, February 20th, 2007 at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Ali’s stories and ideas are relevant to Indonesia that occupied by more than 90% of Muslims populations and the world largest Muslims in the world.

I arrived at the Commonwealth Club around 5:30 PM. There were 4 agents at the lobby. I was search by two of them. I was required to open my jacket, show them the contents in all my pockets. They told me what I could not do, including blocking Ali’s way when she entered or left the podium. Basically, Ali was guarded almost like a president of the United States. Why? If you continue reading this article you will find the answer.

When I had a chance to talk to her personally. What was her first impression? She said, “I am sorry for the people in Indonesia.” If I did not know the context, I would have been confused with her statement. Actually what she wanted to say that the role of Islam in Indonesia did not give women the freedom to determine their own life. Lets evaluate the context that she presented earlier.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali presented cases that were also written in her two books, “The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam” and “Infidel.” I highly recommend these two books for anyone, who has desire to recover themselves and live they full life in country where Islam plays the main role in every aspects of life.

Ali was born in Somalia and raised Muslim, but outraged by her religion’s hostility toward women, she escaped an arranged marriage to a distant relative and fled to the Netherlands. There, she learned Dutch, worked as an interpreter in abortion clinics and shelter for battered women, earned a collage degree in political science, and started a career in politics as a Dutch parliamentarian.

In November 2004, the violent murder on an Amsterdam street of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, with whom Ali had written a film about women and Islam called Submission, changed her life. Threatened by the same group that slew van Gogh, Ali now has round-the-clock protection, but has not allowed these circumstances to compromise her fierce criticism of the treatment of Muslim women, of Islamic goverments’ attempts to silence any questioning of their traditions, and of Western goverments’ blind tolerance of practicing such as genital mutilation and forced marriages of female minors accruing in their countries.

Based on her experience in Somalia, she said – as you can read it in “the Caged Virgin,” “I was thought that Islam sets us apart from the rest of the world, the world of non-Muslims. We Muslims are chosen by God. They, the other, the ‘kaffirs,’ the unbelievers, are antisocial, impure, barbaric, not circumcised, immoral, unscrupulous, and above all, obscene; they have no respect for women; their girls and women are whores; many of the men are homosexual; men and women have sex without married. The unfaithful are cursed, and God will punish them most atrocious in the hereafter.”

In facts, she found out that Islam tradition in most Islamic countries, even in Koran and Hadith inherently teach violence and inequality treatment to women. According to her, Osama Bin Laden carried out his mission according to Koran and Hadith persistently, including killing thousands of people on 9/11. Wife is divorced if the husband says three times, “You are divorced.” While if the wife wants to get divorced, she has to go to the court.

Further she mentioned there was no way to reform Islam except Muslims can accept criticizes. So far Muslims can criticize the West, but the West cannot criticize the practices of Islam. The first step that Muslims should take to reform is by acknowledging that Koran is not the script of Allah. Then reform the treatment to women in Islamic society. I know that sounds radical, but that is what she said.

Recalling to what she said to me, “I am sorry for the people in Indonesia.” Fortunately, majority women in Indonesia don’t receive treatment from their male fellow Muslims as bad as in other Islamic countries. However, there is one thing that we always need to remember; there are always rooms for us to improve.

_____
*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.