Muhammadiyah and the Modernization of Indonesian Women

Baried, Baroroh. 1986. "Islam and the Modernization of Indonesian Women." in Taufik Abdullah and Sharon Siddique. Islam and Society in Southeast Asia. Singapore: ISEAS. pp. 139-154.

... Aisyiyah was one of seven women’s organizations which exercised the initiative to hold the first Indonesian Women’s Congress in 1928, when the Aisyiyah representatives was chosen as a vice-chairman. Its task within the Muhammadiyah was to help women to fully understand what is meant by the injunction to practice Islam as a way of life. Women were to be educated for the purposes of carrying out such religious duties as performing the five daily prayers, fasting, paying the religious tax (zakat) and going on the pilgrimage. Women must understand virtue and why they are not justified to commit adultery, to cheat, to tell lies, and so forth. Muhammadiyah invited Aisyiyah to guide Muslim women to purify their faith in God, using the Holy Qur’an and the Hadis (Traditions of the Prophet) (p. 147).

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Aisyiyah stresses that in the modernization process, Indonesian Muslim women must be responsible for the welfare of their families as well as the welfare of the community. Achieving this requires that women to work together in women’s organizations. Aisyiyah’s activities in the fields of religious teachings, education, social welfare, and economics demonstrate that Indonesian Muslim women are able to work together for their mutual benefit. To accomplish this task they must sometimes leave their homes and families, and devote themselves to community service. Such organizations as Aisyiyah are contributing to the modernization of the Indonesian women (p. 153).