Moderating Anti-Feminism: Islamism and Women Candidates in the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS)

Abstract

As Indonesia’s leading Islamist party, the Prosperous Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, PKS) has attracted much scholarly interest, prompting debate on the extent to which the party’s inclusion in electoral politics has required it to moderate its initially strict ideological vision. In this article, we extend consideration of this “inclusion-moderation” thesis to the party’s attitudes and practices regarding women. PKS has a large and active female support base, but it emphasises that women’s political and social roles should be secondary to their primary duties in the domestic sphere. Through a close study of female PKS candidates in Indonesia’s 2019 legislative elections in East Java, we show that women members of the party are moderating the party’s anti-feminist stance. Though they do not explicitly challenge party ideology, they demonstrate significant independent agency in their campaign practices, engaging in outreach to female voters in a strongly practical rather than strictly ideological mode.