Day 3 : Becoming a Minority*

The third day was the special day as we had a birthday celebration party with a cake, tea, and photo session before class. Everybody enjoyed the celebration. Happy birthday Justine!

The class began late as we are provided some extra time to read the assigned readings. We had an introduction session on the pluralism knowledge program followed by the presentation on the three concern themes. We may work on one of them in this Monsoon schools. The three themes are human and sustainability development and pluralism, pluralism and identity, and pluralism effect, reimagining universal values in current time.

However, I am not going through those themes now, rather I would like to share my experiences as becoming a “minority Muslim woman”, and how this experience has influenced my view on a minority group. It may be too early to identify such influence but this experience has given me a valuable feeling so that I may have a reflection on a minority group.

As a Muslim, living in Indonesia, especially in Yogyakarta, is like living in a Muslim home and paradise. We have a number of mosques and mushala (a smaller building than mosque for praying) and Muslim people both men and women pray together in those worship places. During ramadhan month, we have ifthar and sahari together with family members. We do tarawih prayer and Qur’an recitation in the mosques, even some mosques put the speaker on so the sound is widely heard all over the ears. When iedul fitr comes, both Muslim women and men are attending the ied prayer, either in the mosque or open fields. For sure my feeling was happy and full of joys. Thus, I kept those paradise imaginations when I arrived in Bangalore. Therefore, I expected to have ifthar, sahari and tarawih prayer together. I also searched for a mosque nearby the training center where I can go for ied prayer, and I was very happy when I finally found it.

However, things are not going well as I expected. Moreover, when Ayessa, one of my Indian friends, said that most of mosques in India forbid women to go and pray there. It’s only Muslim men who are allowed to do so. I was totally surprised, “Ohhh really!” It’s out of my expectation, something that I have known nothing. I was like jumping from the third floor of the training center building and my paradise imagination on ramadhan and iedul fitr become ruins.

I am now a minority Muslim woman in Nagarbhavi. I am not a part of the Muslim majority like in Indonesia. I don’t have a public space to practice my belief expressing my joys as what I have in my place. I cannot feel the enjoyment of being a believer on my religion. I have to make an effort to keep doing prayer and fasting as I am not doing it in a group where I may have social enforcement to do so. I am trying to neglect my feeling that I am a stranger in front of others. I am trying to make myself in a comfortable way so that I may not make trouble to the majority. Finally, I do understand that group affiliation have strong power in giving me social capital in which I may be brave to express and I may be able to speak up on my hopes and imaginations.

I do read some articles about how the minorities are struggling challenges because of their minority. But, now I am experiencing their feeling, though just at a glance.

Nor Ismah
Writer at Matapena Community, Yogyakarta Indonesia
*my original writing before editing and it has been published on Summer School Participant Weblog 2013