Womens Experiences Of Sharia Law In Banda Aceh Indonesia

Abstract: This ethnographic study explores women's experiences of Sharia law in the city of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Aceh has status of special autonomy status within Indonesia and is the only province to enact Islamic law. This study shows that a matrifocal tradition, as a part of cultural descent and law (adat), can be a means of asserting agency in the experiences of Sharia law in Banda Aceh. Further, this study identifies the culturally specific, intersecting dimensions of gender, religion, ethnicity, class, age and space as crucial elements for an understanding of the experiences of women in Banda Aceh. Their structurally embedded, life-worldly ways of thinking, feeling and acting in relation to Sharia law are represented in this study in the form of a semi-fictionalized ethnography. For the sake of the anonymity and protection of the research participants, selected life-histories of women in Banda Aceh were re-combined. An emphasis on the embodied experiences of six personae brings their socially, legally and ideationally grounded agency to the fore