Open Access Edition of Islamizing Intimacies: Youth, Sexuality, and Gender in Contemporary Indonesia by Nancy J. Smith-Hefner

FAIN: DR-281329-21

University of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI 96822-2216)
Joel Cosseboom (Project Director: March 2021 to August 2022)

This project will publish 'Islamizing Intimacies: Youth, Sexuality, and Gender in Contemporary Indonesia,' written by NEH Fellow Nancy J. Smith-Hefner (NEH grant number FB-37676-02), in an electronic open access format under a Creative Commons license, making it available for free download and redistribution. The author will be paid a royalty of at least $500 upon release of the open access ebook.

Associated Products

Single Publication (Open Access eBook or Collection)
Publication Type: Single Publication
Title: Islamizing Intimacies: Youth, Sexuality, and Gender in Contemporary Indonesia
Year: 2021
Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press
Author: Nancy J. Smith-Hefner
Abstract: One of the great transformations presently sweeping the Muslim world involves not just political and economic change but the reshaping of young Muslims’ styles of romance, courtship, and marriage. Nancy J. Smith-Hefner takes up the personal lives and sexual attitudes of educated Muslim Javanese youth in the city of Yogyakarta to explore the dramatic social and ethical changes taking place in Indonesian society. Drawing on more than 250 interviews over a fifteen-year period, her vivid, well-crafted ethnography is full of insights into the real-life struggles of young Muslims and framed by a deep understanding of Indonesia’s wider debates on gender and youth culture. The changes among Muslim youth reflect an ongoing if at times unsteady attempt to balance varied ideals, ethical concerns, and aspirations. On the one hand, growing numbers of young people show a deep and pervasive desire for a more active role in their Islamic faith. On the other, even as they seek a more self-conscious and scripture-based profession of faith, many educated youth aspire to personal relationships similar to those seen among youth elsewhere—a greater measure of informality, openness, and intimacy than was typical for their parents’ and grandparents’ generations. Young women in particular seek freedom for self-expression, employment, and social fulfillment outside of the home. Smith-Hefner pays particular attention to their shifting roles and perspectives because it is young women who have been most dramatically affected by the upheavals transforming this Muslim-majority country. Although deeply personal, the changing aspirations of young Muslims have immense implications for social and public life throughout Indonesia.
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv7r43bt
Primary URL Description: JSTOR
Secondary URL: https://www.amazon.com/Islamizing-Intimacies-Sexuality-Contemporary-Indonesia-ebook/dp/B07HXPWGX1/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?
Secondary URL Description: Kindle
Type: Single author monograph

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