As just noted at the end of the posting that precedes this one, “attempts to legislate for the protection of women’s rights come up against protestations in the name of Sharia.”
Thank you for proving our point. “Indonesia: Islamist groups object to gender equality bill,” from AdnKronos International, March 15 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Jakarta, 15 March (AKI/Jakarta Post) – Six major Indonesian Islamic organizations have voiced objections to the gender fairness and equality bill, saying that some articles may harm Islamic values.
The objections were made during a consultation meeting between the organizations and the House’s religion and social affairs commission.
The criticisms came from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the Indonesian Consultative Council for Muslim Women Organizations (BMO-IWI), Aisyiah, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), the Islamic Community Party (PUI) and Muslimat NU.
The representatives, who were all women, said that the bill could further violate Islamic law on inheritance sharing, marriage and women’s rights to be a mother and housewife.
They said that the bill’s article 12, for example, which stipulated that every man and woman could freely choose a husband or wife, contradicted Islamic law that suggests the bride and groom be of the same religion.
It seems likely that their larger objection is that women could freely choose their husbands. Islamic law allows Muslim men to marry non-Muslim women, but not the other way around, assuming that the non-Muslim will be subject to the Muslim, and that the household will thus follow the religion of the husband.
Eneng Zubaedah from the MUI said that Islam, as a religion, strictly regulated the proportion of inheritance between a man and a woman, which was two to one.
“We have to realize that it may also contradict the idea behind the bill,” Eneng Zubaedah said.
HTI spokesman Iffah Ainur Rochmah said that gender equality that encouraged women to work would eventually cause more conflicts within marriages.
“In 2009, statistics from Jakarta revealed that the divorce rate of teachers went up mainly because wives had better salaries, and thus felt superior,” she said….
That sounds like a bit of projection of easily wounded pride. It seems they are deflecting responsibility by not finding fault with jealousy, but with “provoking” jealousy by being successful, and by being independent. Of course, the same tactic is frequently employed where anger is concerned.