Ambivalent Subjectivities: Young Women in Leftist Muslim Activism in Java

Abstract

This article investigates the experiences of young women involved in progressive Muslim youth activism in Java, Indonesia. Hailing from the Indonesian periphery, many of them encounter leftist ideas for the first time as they enter university. As male intellectual leaders emphasize a shift from personal to social morality in their theological exegesis as a foundation for leftist Islam, young women feel encouraged to engage in this mixed-gender movement. However, this turn away from the personal also conceals discourses that challenge the young women’s full involvement in the movement, namely the masculine connotations of youth activism, and hegemonic strictly observant, and colonial notions of “female nature” as docile, caring, and domestic. As a result, female activists experience ambivalence between being Muslim and leftist, and concerns about their future involvement in activism as adult women.