This book is the first to explore understandings of gender and Islam in pesantren (traditional Islamic boarding schools) and Sufi orders in Indonesia. Pesantren are crucial centres of Muslim learning and culture within Indonesia and this book demonstrates how Muslim women rise to positions of power and authority in this patriarchal domain, challenging and negotiating "normative" Muslim patriarchy while establishing their own Muslim "authenticity." The book explores female leadership, power, feminisms and sexuality to reveal that pesantren and Sufi orders are not only centres of learning, but also social spaces in which the interplay of gender, politics, status, power and piety shape the course of life.

Introduction: De-colonizing Islam and Muslim feminism Part 1:Female Leadership and Muslim Agency 1. Between Sufi and Salafi Subjects: Contested female leadership, spiritual power and gender matters in Lombok 2. Leadership and Authority: Women leading dayah in Aceh 3. Gender in Contemporary Acehnese Dayah: Moving beyond docile agency? Part 2: Female Spiritual Authority in Sufi Orders and Mystical Groups 4. When Wahyu Comes through Women: Female spiritual authority and divine revelation in mystical groups and pesantren-Sufi orders 5. Reframing the Gendered Dimension of Islamic Spirituality: Silsilah and the 'problem' of female leadership in tarekat Part 3: Muslim Feminisms: Islamic and Islamist orientations 6. Interpreting and Enacting Islamic Feminism in Pesantren Al-Muayyad Windan7. Women's Negotiation of Status and Space in a Muslim Fundamentalist Movement Part 4: Sexuality, Shari'ah and Power 8. The Tawdry Tale of 'Syech' Puji and Lutfiana: Child marriage and polygamy on the boundary of the pesantren world9. Constructing Sexuality in a Panopticon Pesantren