Pipis di Pinggir Jalan, Ups!

Hari kedua di Nagarbhavi, adakah yang menarik?

Oho, kami sempat jalan pagi melihat-lihat toko-toko di perempatan. Ampun, nyebeli! Tanpa sengaja aku nginjak kotoran anjing, fresh from the oven. Berwarna kuning dan lembek! Nooo. Sandal biru cantik yang aku bawa jauh-jauh dari Yogya lengkap bertuliskan "I Love Yogya" terpaksa harus aku parkir di luar kamar. Ini bener-bener pengalaman baru sepanjang sejarah hidupku ha ha!

Hal menarik kedua, waktu aku dan teman-teman jalan-jalan di luar lingkungan kampus tempat Monsoon School berlangsung. Ya ampun, sempat terkejut. Masak dalam jarak yang tak seberapa jauh itu sudah menemukan dua orang pipis di pinggir jalan. Bahkan, salah satunya rela turun dari motor hanya untuk pipis. Oh! Ya bukannya di kampungku tidak ada, tapi biasanya pipis sembarangan dilakukan sambil sembunyi di semak-semak, atau di balik dinding ha ha. Ini sungguh terlalu! Tanpa tedeng aling-aling, di pinggir jalan, langsung pipis begitu saja.

Aku lalu jadi mikir, kenapa itu bisa terjadi? Hayooo kenapa?

Ya, karena kebelet pastinya. Kedua, sudah terbiasa dan masyarakat menerima kebiasaan itu sebagai hal wajar. Bukan hal yang memalukan untuk dilakukan. Aku jadi penasaran, apa kira-kira mereka nggak ngajarin anak-anak mereka untuk pipis hanya di toilet ya? So far, aku baru melihat laki-laki yang melakukan, belum nemu kasus yang dilakukan perempuan. Kira-kira ada nggak ya ... :)

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

Day 2 : To Know Better about Four Countries*

It’s the second day, and I am still trying to adapt myself among the participants from different countries, understanding their backgrounds and accents.

Today, we were divided into 4 country groups; India, Indonesia, Uganda, and Netherland. Addressing the three pre-assessment questions, each of the group presented an introduction on their own countries, the two most important pluralism issues, the institutional engagement, and fears and hopes in dealing with the issues. As we played with prejudices and a glimpse of facts yesterday, we do understand the geographical location, cultural and political situation of these countries, and the issues they are facing regarding pluralism.

Participants from India started the presentation. They came up with two important pluralism issues in India, which are cultural exclusivism including ethnicity, religious minority and gender, and the development problems in which it does not reach everyone in its society. The problems are caused by language and procedural barriers and infrastructural gap between urban and rural areas. The second presentation was delivered by participants from Uganda. They pointed out two issues which were political and economical pluralism. These issues include the repressive government, the restriction toward people’s expression, corruptions, and economic inequality.

From the Dutch group, we learned that there are two pluralism issues in the Netherland which are the fear of Islam and gender issues such as the emergence of a group called “father’s for justice”. Following the Dutch, Indonesian group had their presentation after lunch. There are two important pluralism issues in Indonesia, which are the identity politics in which the state misuses it for its political power, and the issue of religious freedom such as violence and discrimination based on religion. These issues have been increased since the Soeharto regime has collapsed, and state and the society are in the democratic transition.

I like the presentations because I think pluralism is about how to communicate and understand differences and preferences between one and another, and these presentations have done same by helping us to understand how pluralism issues can be considered in various countries. Moreover, the participants also shared their experiences and institutional engagement regarding with pluralism issues in their countries. It’s very inspiring!

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

Bercerita tentang Jilbab di Indonesia

Tiba-tiba saja ditodong Mbak Jim untuk sharing tentang evolusi Jilbab di Indonesia (08/07/13). Hmmm, bisa tidak ya? Setelah mikir beberapa saat, kupikir kenapa tidak, sekalian bisa belajar bersama delegasi dari Iran yang waktu itu tengah mengikuti Summer School di CRCS. Yup. Aku langsung kontak yuyun yang pernah riset tentang Jilbab di Yogya. Dan, itu cukup sebagai bahan obrolan ditambah artikel tentang gerakan Tarbiyah di Indonesia.

Jadi, Yuyun menyimpulkan bahwa Jilbab dan jenis-jenisnya tidak bisa hanya dimaknai sebagai simbol kesalehan, seperti yang dilontarkan oleh Suzanne Barner dari hasil penelitiannya pada tahun 90an. Setiap jenis jilbab memiliki korelasi dengan bagaimana pemakainya memaknai tubuh dan aurat, dan tentu saja pemaknaan ini berkaitan dengan budaya, pendidikan, dan nilai-nilai yang sudah menginternalisasi ke dalam individu masing-masing. Ada jilbab bercadar, yang bereferensi ideologis, jilbab besar, jilbab tradisional dan jilbab funky.

The good thing is since Indonesia is not a syariah country, tidak ada intervensi dari pemerintah berkaitan dengan jilbab. Berbeda dengan Iran yang memang mewajibkan perempuan untuk memakai hijab. Meskipun, ada beberapa yang memakai semi hijab, yang tidak menutup aurat dengan sempurna seperti hijab yang diwajibkan. Lalu, bagaimana jika ada yang melanggar? Mereka bilang, hampir jarang ada pelanggaran. Kalaupun ada, mereka akan kena denda.

Usai sharing rasanya tak sia-sia aku mengiyakan todongan itu. Pertama, tentu saja aku mendapat kesempatan untuk berbicara, bagaimana pun bentuknya. Kedua, mengenal dan mengerti budaya Muslim Iran, terutama tentang Jilbab.