Violence against women reform in Indonesia: Between women's rights and Islamic morality

This article examines how women's civil society groups in Indonesia successfully achieved two watershed violence against women (VAW) reforms since the collapse of the authoritarian New Order regime in 1998: Law 23/2004 on the Eradication of Domestic Violence and Law 12/2022 on Sexual Violence Crime. It compares the strategies deployed by proponents to explain variation in the pace and outcomes of these reforms and to account for continuity and change in VAW reform strategies. Combining a feminist institutionalist framework with Htun and Weldon's typology of gender equality policies, I argue that VAW reform in Indonesia sits at the intersection of status politics, which involves transforming gender-discriminatory institutions, and doctrinal politics, which challenges the patriarchal traditions of religious groups. The analysis demonstrates that the success of each reform depended on how proponents negotiated tensions between a women's rights agenda on the one hand, and a conservative Islamic morality agenda on the other, within a male-dominated political landscape. This study identifies several strategies employed by reform proponents across the two reforms: vernacularizing international women's rights discourses; building coalitions with critical actors within and beyond formal political arenas; strategically leveraging electoral politics; framing reform as compatible with religious norms; and refocusing the institutional arena of legislative deliberation. The deployment and effectiveness of these strategies were shaped by intersecting factors, including the gendered dynamics of democratization, the influence of international norms, and the power of informal rules such as patriarchal religious doctrines.