The Narratives of Shia Madurese Displaced Women on Their Religious Identity and Gender Citizenship: A Study of Women and Shi’as in Indonesia

This article explores expressions in how the local Shi’as Muslim women refugees define and interpret their religious identity and gender citizenship in post-authoritarian Indonesia. This article discusses the cases of Shias women from the Sampang Regency, East Java, Indonesia, in the aftermath of the 2012 conflict that made them internally displaced persons (IDPs, Indonesian: pengungsi). This study argues that religious identity and gender citizenship are constructed by these displaced Shias women concerning their belief as to what is considered ‘true’ in Islam, acquired from the ‘Islamic traditions’ of their local Islamic teacher (s). Their loyalty to a religious belief does not arise from any independent search for the ‘true Islam’ but rather from the doctrine of the teachers/spiritual leaders. Enforced loyalty to Shi’as in their everyday communal ritual practices has influenced the formation of these displaced women’s religious identity as Shi’ias.