 Seal of Aisyiyah | |
 Flag of Aisyiyah | |
| Formation | 19 May 1917 |
|---|---|
| Type | Islamic women organization |
| Purpose | Socio-religious |
| Headquarters | Yogyakarta, Indonesia |
Region served | Indonesia |
Leader | Dr. apt. Salmah Orbayinah, M. Kes. |
| Website | Official website |
Aisyiyah (Arabic: عائشية, romanized: ʿĀʾishiyah, lit. 'followers of Aisha') is an Islamic non-governmental organization in Indonesia dedicated to female empowerment and charitable work. It was formed on 19 May 1917 by Nyai Ahmad Dahlan to facilitate women's access to education, health care and social services.[1][2] The organization provides micro-loan and small business development support, family planning services, maternal and pediatric care, orphanages, training for female Muslim clerics, and standard preschool through university level education.[1][3][4] These social services end at death, whereby the organization provides female morticians so that female bodies do not need to be prepared for burial by men.[5] Aisyiyah manages several hundred healthcare centers in Indonesia as well as three branches in Egypt, Malaysia and the Netherlands.[2] The organization's stated goal is to make Islamic society a reality for women,[4] and it encourages its members to seek further education even if they become "smarter than their husbands."[6]
Aisyiyah faces opposition to their work from two sources: traditional Javanese culture with its pre-Islamic practices and the minority of Indonesians who study Islam in the Middle East both display negative attitudes toward women in the public space.[4]
- ^ a b Aisyiyah Archived 2016-12-20 at the Wayback Machine at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Accessed 8 December 2016.
- ^ a b Aisyiyah Archived 2018-07-25 at the Wayback Machine at the official MAMPU website. Accessed 8 December 2016.
- ^ Florian Pohl, The Muhammadiyah. Taken from The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Social Justice, pgs. 246-247. Eds. Michael D. Palmer and Stanley M. Burgess. New York City: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. ISBN 9781405195478
- ^ a b c Pieternella van Doorn-Harder, WOMEN SHAPING ISLAM: Reading the Qu'ran in Indonesia, pg .92. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2010. ISBN 9780252092718
- ^ Pieternella van Doorn-Harder, WOMEN SHAPING ISLAM, pg. 93.
- ^ Pieternella van Doorn-Harder, WOMEN SHAPING ISLAM, pg. 91.