The Socio-History of Women and Muslim Education in West Sumatra: A Quest for Agency and Representation

Paper Abstract: West Sumatra of Indonesia has been known as the region that has a strong history of Muslim education across the nation. West Sumatra has been a destination for a number of  students from different parts of the archipelago especially since the beginning of the twentieth century. There were several well-known Islamic schools in the region, including those for women, such as Diniyah Putri Padang Panjang.  Apart from Islamic schools for women, there are also few women's leader in Minangkabau West Sumatra, who promoted [Islamic] education for girls such as Rahmah El-Yunusiiyah, Rohana Kudus, Rasuna Said and few others. Placing their agency within the matriarchal traditions or matrifocal values among the Minangkabau  people, this paper explores their agency and contextualize as well as analyze  their agency from the intersection several triggering factors, culture and tradition, religion as well as  socio-political notions. It will also quest  how they represented the social movements in the regions, and also the tension among conflicting factors within the local narrative of kaum muda and kaum tua  (reformist and traditionalist) social movement. It is also significant to examine the  possible network existed or the other networks impacted form their representation and agency especially across the neighboring areas, and also to explore to what extent  their initiatives and agency sustain to later generation, and later development of  Muslim education in the region and beyond.