WOMAN WITH A TOURBAN

Director : Hanung Bramantyo

Starring : Revalina S Temat, Oka Antara, Widyawati, Reza Rahadian, Francine Roosenda

This movie is based on a novel written by Abidah el Khalieqy, an Indonesian novelist. Hanung Bramantyo is one of the best Indonesian movie director who directed a successful movie – Ayat Ayat cinta (Verses of love).

The story is about life in an Islamic school (madrassa in Arabic or Pesantren in Indonesian language) in a small town in east Java, Indonesia. The name of the school is Pesantren Al Huda (The Guide). The main character is Annisa (Revalina Temat), the daughter of a Kyai (Islamic clergyman) who leads the school. The writer describes Annisa’s father as an authoritarian, male chauvinist man. He treats his children discriminatively. His two sons enjoy some privileges while Annisa has to obey many rules without any rights.

The movie starts with a scene when Annisa ride a horse in a beautiful beach. Perhaps the scene is a metaphor about a girl who struggle for equality.

Little Annisa wanted to ride a horse because she often sees her brothers ride horses. But her parents forbade her just because she was a girl. Annisa had such a sharp mind that she always questions everything. She was not satisfied with many practices that she considered as discrimination so she grew up as a rebellious girl.

One day Annisa was elected as the chief of her class. She got twelve votes while her rival, who is a boy, got only eleven votes. But her teacher decided that the winner was her rival just because Annisa is a girl. She was very angry and immediately got out of class and ran home. Then she told her parents about it. Instead of backing her, her father got mad and Annisa was punished and beaten.

One day she wanted a watch a movie with his friend. When her father knew the consequence was hard, she was not allowed to go out of her house.

Since she was a teenager Annisa fell in love with Khudori, her relative but when he graduated from high school he left for Egypt to continue his study. He always give Annisa motivation to reach her dreams. Annisa was a smart girl so she wanted to continue her study to university in the city of Yogyakarta.

Upon graduation from high school Annisa got a scholarship to study in a university in Yogyakarta, an education center in Indonesia. When he told her parents about the good news they refused it. Her father said that it was not a good idea for a girl to study in a faraway city without any husband. Then Annisa had to marry the son of a rich man who had supported her father’s school. Syamsuddin is a son of a rich kyai(ulama, Islamic clergyman).

Syamsuddin proved to be a cruel man. He often went out for days without any news. Annisa was just like his servant or even slave. She had only obligation but no rights at all. He did not give Annisa permission to study. So Annisa was not happy at all. The situation got worse when Annisa did not pregnant.

One day a pregnant woman came to their house to see Syamsuddin. Her name is Kulsum. She was Syamsuddin’s new wife. The two women lived in the same house. Annisa was shocked. When Kulsum gave birth Annisa had to help her take care of the baby.

When the Al Huda Islamic school had a celebration Annisa went home to see her parents. There she met her old love – Khudori who just came home after several years of study in Egypt. Annisa told him all her sorrow.

As they chatted suddenly Syamsuddin came. He was very angry to see her wife talked very intimately to another man. He accused her as having an affair and commit adultery. This is a serious violation of Islamic law. The whole pesantren (Islamic school) was very shocked to watch this event. People were demanding the application of stoning to Annisa and Khudori. The crowd were very angry and almost got out of control. But Annisa’s mother (Widyawati) managed to calm them down. She told the crowd that only those who do not have sin may stone them to death. Of course nobody can do this. Who do not have sin?

But Syamsuddin was still disappointed and he divorced Annisa. Meanwhile Annisa’s father who was very shocked by the event died of heart attack.

Annisa was disappointed and hurt and then she decided to go to Yogyakarta to continue her study. Once again she was very shocked when she met her old friend who was no longer hold high standard of morality.

Days passed and Annisa met her old love again. Kudori married her. At first it was not easy for her to have a new husband. She was afraid when her husband asked her to go to bed. She felt raped by her first husband. But the gentle loving Kudori could persuade her. Still her emotion was not stable. When Kudori told someone had a baby Annisa felt that her husband blame her for her inability to have children.

Unfortunately Annisa’s happiness did not last long. Sorrow was part of her life. One day there was an accident. When Kudori went out by his motor cycle, a car hit him and he passed away.

Annisa worked as a counselor for abused women. She also tried to establish a library in her father’s school in which she will collect not only Islamic books but also novel and general books . But instead of support she got fierce opposition. Everybody opposed her. They thought that novels like the works of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, a leftist Indonesian writer, and general books would give negative influence to students of the pesantren (Islamic school). One day they even burned her books.

But Annisa’s effort finally paid off. After years of heated debate about advantages and disadvantages of a general library, her brothers who run the school accept her ideas. They built a library whose collection was not only Islamic books but also general books including novels.

This negative portrait of life in a pesantren makes many people disappointed. Some people asked the government to ban the movie. But so far there is no demonstration or protest from Muslim community. They like the movie and the novel instead.

In my opinion life of traditional Muslim in the island of Java is similar to this story. Most of them are male chauvinist. In fact this is contrary to Islamic principles. Islam respect women but many Muslim do not.

We must not forget that in Indonesia there are many modern Muslim who have totally different values, culture, mindset, and opinion from the traditionalist ones. They have very modern and good education. Take Muhammadiyah for example. This is a modern Muslim organization who organizes hospitals, mosque, schools and many social activities. In the city of Malang, east Java, they have Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, which is a good and modern university.

All in all this is a good movie about life in a traditional Islamic school. But we’d better bear in mind that Islam and Muslim are much more complicated than what is depicted in the movie.