Digitalizing Female Religious Authority
KUPI’s Gender-Responsive Fatwas and the Reconfiguration of Islamic Discourse in Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21154/altahrir.v26i1.12384Keywords:
Kongres Ulama Perempuan Indonesia (KUPI), Gender responsive fatwa, digital strategy, inclusive IslamAbstract
The digitization of Indonesia’s Islamic religious sphere has created a complex competition for authority. The Indonesian Congress of Women Ulama (KUPI) aims to reshape religious authority by producing and sharing gender-responsive fatwas through digital platforms. This study looks at KUPI’s digital methods for spreading these fatwas and how these methods influence a more inclusive Islamic conversation. Using a qualitative, case-study approach within KUPI’s digital ecosystem, particularly KUPIPedia and its social media channels, data was collected through systematic content analysis of digital outputs from 2017 to 2025. The analytical framework combines Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Latour’s Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to explore how claims of authority are created through discourse and shaped by networks of people and non-human elements. The findings show that KUPI builds a model of shared and participatory authority through the ideas of ma’ruf, mubadalah, and true justice, supported by a network of 15 partner institutions. However, digitalization does not lead to a straightforward growth of influence. Social media algorithms often favor conservative content, and KUPI’s reach mainly focuses on the educated urban audience. Theoretically, this study reveals that digital religious authority is subject to debate and relational, rather than merely a product of technological democratization and methodologically offers a replicable CDA-ANT framework for analyzing the production of fatwas in the digital age.
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