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NU chairman defends comments deemed 'anti-feminist'
The NU chief has maintained his stance that the organization's members should be motivated only by Islam and eschew any 'ideas and creeds' from 'outside the Islamic tradition'.
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Yahya Cholil Staquf, who chairs Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), greets journalists after his inauguration on May 31, 2018 as a member of the Presidential Advisory Board (Wantimpres) at the State Palace in Jakarta. (Antara/Wahyu Putro A.)
Y
ahya Cholil Staquf, the chairman of Nadhlatul Ulama, has defended a statement he made last month that many women’s rights activists had deemed anti-feminist and dealt a setback for his move to encourage more women among the leadership of the country’s largest Muslim organization.
Last month, in a speech he made addressing Fatayat and Muslimat, NU’s two women’s organizations, Yahya said, “NU does not need to go along with various gender ideologies developed from other cultures.”
He continued: “I remind Fatayat and Muslimat, don’t get involved in feminism.”
This Wednesday, Yahya reiterated his call, saying that Muslims should only follow Islamic ideas and creeds.
“These many isms, including feminism, did not grow out of Islam, [they grew] outside the Islamic tradition. I always tell everyone that NU is Islam, and we have to ensure that Islam is the motivation,” he said during a media briefing to announce the organization’s centenary.
Yahya went on to say that if Muslims wanted to campaign for equal rights, they should draw their inspiration from Islamic teachings and not feminism.
“If you want to think about women, you need to use the perspective of Islam. [...] If we follow feminism as a mere ideology, we will have endless debate,” he told reporters.
