Learning Islam through Women Ulama

This International Short Course is designed to introduce participants to Indonesian Islam as a lived tradition through the experiences of women ulama, pesantren communities, and contemporary Islamic scholarship.

Participants will explore how Islamic knowledge is interpreted, negotiated, and translated into social transformation in Indonesia. The programme highlights the intellectual contributions of the Kongres Ulama Perempuan Indonesia (KUPI), a pioneering movement that reaffirms women as legitimate producers of Islamic knowledge through collective ijtihad, ethical reasoning, and commitments to justice, compassion, and human dignity.

Indonesia offers one of the world's richest contexts for understanding the dynamic relationship between religion, culture, and society. As the world's largest Muslim-majority country, its Islamic traditions have developed through continuous interaction among religious scholarship, local cultures, pesantren, civil society, and democratic institutions.

A central focus of the programme is the emergence of the Kongres Ulama Perempuan Indonesia (KUPI) as an innovative movement of Islamic scholarship. Beyond promoting women's participation, KUPI offers a distinctive epistemological framework that integrates classical Islamic scholarship with lived experiences, maqāṣid al-sharī'ah, collective deliberation, and ethical commitments to justice and human dignity.

A distinctive feature of this programme is the live-in experience at Pesantren Kebon Jambu, one of Indonesia's leading pesantren in promoting women's religious leadership and gender justice. Participants will live alongside the santri, taking part in the rhythms of daily pesantren life, including religious learning, communal activities, and interactions with women ulama and community leaders.