Rethinking femicide : analyzing da’wah narratives and harmful practices against women in Indonesia

Abstract

This study rethinks the concept of femicide beyond the narrow definition of the physical killing of women. It explores how certain harmful practices, such as early marriage, pronatalist pressure (the pressure on women to have many children), and female genital mutilation, can also be considered as forms of femicide when viewed through a broader lens. These practices, while not always immediately fatal, can endanger women’s lives. They are often legitimized through cultural norms and certain religious interpretations that continue to shape everyday realities for many women in Indonesia. Using a qualitative approach, this study employs Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis and Johan Galtung's theory of cultural violence to see how religious discourse contributes to the normalization of such practices. The primary data consists of da’wah narratives from four prominent Islamic preachers in Indonesia, including Dr. Syafiq Riza Basalamah, Dr. Khalid Basalamah, Dr. Firanda Andirja, and Buya Yahya, whose content is widely viewed on YouTube and reflects a strong influence in shaping public opinion. While acknowledging the diversity of views among preachers in Indonesia, this research focuses on those who support such practices to analyze how certain religious discourses may indirectly legitimize violence against women. The analysis focuses on the language used in sermons, the socio-religious context, and how these discourses interact with societal norms and expectations. This research argues that femicide should not be understood only as an act of killing but as a broader spectrum of violence that includes structural and cultural factors that put women at risk. By referring to Galtung's theory of cultural violence, this thesis argues that those practices that endanger women's lives can be categorized as femicide, as based on current definitions of femicide, that femicide is not only about physical killing but also about conditions in which women live in perpetual fear, lack autonomy, or experience the slow erosion of life, a phenomenon described as “death in life.” In this case, women are placed on “death row,” a bubble of situations that make them insecure, vulnerable, and at risk of losing their lives.