Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Like any other girl in her neighborhood, Masruchah was told to complete her higher education before being married off to a Muslim cleric from a Nadhatul Ulama (NU) traditional Muslim community in Pati regency, Central Java.
""But I have not got married until now as I haven't found the right man,"" she told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a recent National Gathering of Women Activists at Pondok Gede haj dormitory, East Jakarta.
Not for her the Bridget Jones-like worries of being single in her early 40s. In fact, she's delighted to find herself, as a Muslim feminist, struggling to defend women's rights in the country.
She has spent the past two years closely involved in the focal point of the country's women's movement by serving as secretary-general of the Indonesian Women's Coalition for Justice and Democracy (KPI), one of the largest women's organizations in Indonesia.
Masruchah has got herself involved in every movement to defend women's rights: from protesting the draft pornography bill to raising the awareness by girls of reproductive rights at Muslim boarding schools in Central Java.
""In traditional Muslim communities, female rights are accorded low priority. Rape, underage marriage and polygamy are commonplace,"" she said.
Muslims clerics as well as women in the community do not realize the danger of neglecting women's reproductive rights.
""It's part of the culture that girls should be matched to senior clerics, while their parents cannot reject the offers,"" she said.
Masruchah first gained awareness of women's rights when she joined the Indonesian Muslim Students Movement (PMII) in her second year at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic Institute (IAIN) in Yogyakarta.
In the movement, she learned that many student activities took place at night, limiting female participation. Young women could not attend the activities because their landladies did not allow them to return late at night to their rented rooms.
When she found herself in an influential position within the movement a year later, she made sure these activities took place during the day so that the problem was circumvented.
As she wanted to concentrate on women's reproductive rights, she quit the student movement three years later and worked at the NU Human Resources Research Center (LKPSM) in the same city.
She delved more into religious perspectives on women rights at the research center. A theology degree from IAIN helped her a lot in her research.
""I discovered that, ultimately, all religions discriminate against women's rights. It's not because their scripture tells them to; rather, the problem is a misinterpretation of religious teaching,"" she said.
Masruchah pointed out that Muslim perspectives on permitting polygamy were due to a single interpretation on Koranic teaching -- that men are allowed to marry more than one woman because Prophet Muhammad did so.
In fact, engaging in polygamy or underage marriage may result in unhealthy sexual activity because women often became depressed by such unions, she said.
She added the Koran did not suggest polygamy per se. It was only allowed under certain circumstances, such as in war or in conflict zones.
Men who desired polygamy used Koran teaching selectively to justify their actions, she said.
Masruchah's active campaigning on women's reproductive rights earned her much respect among her friends at the research center. She was asked to lead it during the mid-1990s.
Nevertheless, she was unable to do so because that position was considered a male preserve. She was rejected for the simple reason that she could not attend meetings with clerics after midnight because she was a woman.
According to tradition, women were not allowed to be in the company of non-family males after dark because it could cause unhealthy suspicion in the community.
Disenchanted by such discrimination, she moved to the NU Female Youth Prosperity Foundation (YKF)
At that time she became involved in KPI. She participated in the KPI regional congress in Yogyakarta in 2000. She was later appointed KPI Yogyakarta regional secretary by the congress.
Four years after her first encounter at KPI, she was elected secretary-general at the second KPI national congress in Jakarta.
For Masruchah, the root of discrimination against women is not only cultural or religious interpretation: It is the end result of women's inability to discuss politics in the bedroom with their husbands, in their homes and also at a state level.
""It is a matter of women's choice. So often, Indonesian women simply resign themselves to their situation instead of standing up for their rights,"" she said. ""Choices that women can make are reflected in both their individual lives and the well-being of women generally in the country.""
Such choices, however, are limited to relatively few women in the country. Those who live in repressive communities do not have proper access to an education that would enable them to make their own choices.
""I was lucky enough to grow up in a moderate family, although we are part of a traditional Muslim community,"" she said.
Her mother taught her seven children to take care of each other based on respect for one's elders. She did not leave domestic tasks to her two daughters only. Everyone in the family had a role to play when it came to domestic chores.
When Masruchah's older brother accompanied her at night, it was not necessarily because she was a girl, but more because she was younger. She also had to take care of her younger brothers and sister when necessary.
She has therefore established the improvement of access to information and the education of women activists as her main targets in running KPI.
They have worked hard to get the anti-trafficking bill passed into law by the House of Representatives.
KPI also organized the recent national gathering to integrate the women's movement from all parts of Indonesia. KPI's initiative to hold the gathering was based on its concerns that fundamentalism and globalization discriminate against women's rights.
Implementation of the pornography bill and some gender-biased regional bylaws are perceived as negative impacts of a shift toward fundamentalism.
She is strictly against regulations that order women to wear so-called ""Islamic clothing"" -- a headscarf, long-sleeved blouse and a long skirt -- even though she wears that kind of clothing herself.
""It's been my choice to dress like this. It's part of what I believe in, but I don't think it's good to push everyone else to do so -- that would be against their rights as human beings,"" she said.
Masruchah, with all efforts to promote gender equality, doesn't really care that people sometimes say she is a ""Zionist"" or a secularist who is against Koran teaching and principles.
Above all, her only desire is that every woman in Indonesia may enjoy the same freedoms that she has.
