Sexuality, Spirituality, and Power

<p>Silence within patriarchal and religious systems operates as a subtle mechanism of power that regulates women’s bodies and desires. This article explores how Acehnese women in Indonesia construct and perform sexual agency amid the overlapping authorities of Sharia law and local customary norms. Drawing on feminist cultural theory and phenomenological approaches to embodiment, the study interprets women’s lived sexual experiences as sites of resistance, adaptation, and moral negotiation. Based on ethnographic engagement with four Acehnese women, the research reveals that desire and pleasure are articulated through embodied silences, gestures, and affective expressions that both adhere to and subvert dominant moral frameworks. The concept of embodied silence emerges as a critical analytical tool to understand how women navigate the tensions between faith, discipline, and desire. By situating Acehnese women’s sexual subjectivity within broader postcolonial and Islamic moral economies, this study contributes to interdisciplinary debates on gender, embodiment, and cultural power in Muslim societies.</p>