Tendency for Gender-Biased Interpretations Still High

If nothing else, the Covid-19 pandemic has not managed to disrupt Nur Rofiah’s Qur’anic Recitation Session on Gender Justice in Islam. Through the da’wah forum she initiated in the Ramadan two years ago, the professor in Qur’anic studies and interpretation fights for gender justice for Muslim women by raising awareness that women’s humanity is equal to men’s. She first got acquainted with the gender justice issue when she was studying at the Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic Institute in Yogyakarta in the 90s when the gender issue was a hot topic and people were associating it with Islam. Her interest in the issue grew stronger as she immersed herself in the world of activism. Apart from being active as a lecturer and an activist, Nur Rofiah also helped launch the country’s first female Muslim clerics’ congress in 2017.