Part 2 — XXIII OUR MOSLEM SISTERS IN JAVA
Reading edition
(Translated from the Dutch)
The life of the Mohammedan woman in general here is not that of a being on a par with man, but rather comparable with that of a dumb animal, a creature inferior to and much less worthy than man, which is kept and utilized as long as it performs some services.
Fatalism, as taught and nourished by Islam, places the woman in a servile relationship to the man, so much so that she, although considered a creature of no particular value, does not take offence at being accounted a negligible quantity.
Maltreatment of women takes place occasionally but is by no means general, because nothing hinders the husband from driving away his wife with whom he may not be satisfied, without even observing the simplest form of a legal procedure.
Why should the man, particularly amongst Moslems, "the Lord of Creation," weary himself or even become angry, seeing it is far wiser and more profitable that he exchange the worn-out wife and mother, who can no longer add to the number of his children, for a younger and stronger wife? This profitable barter, too, need cost him but a trifle.
This exchange of wives has even a more demoralizing tendency than the practice of polygamy itself, which luxury only those can participate in whose salary is at least fifteen florins per month.
The results of the sinful practice of polygamy, especially for the children and consequently for the state, would be less sad to contemplate, were it not that the polygamist exchanges his wife as readily for another as he who can afford but one wife at a time.
It is scarcely necessary for me to enumerate here the effects of this evil of which the wife is the victim.
This much-loved evil is a strong bulwark against the spread of the ethics of Christianity.
A second and a very powerful opponent of mission work is found in the peculiar Mohammedan village organization, in which the Moslem sheikh or spiritual leader plays the most important rôle.
Another peculiarity of Islam here, is the fact that the inland population and the millions of inhabitants who live in the lowlands of Java are peculiarly interrelated and mutually dependent. Only in a few of the larger towns in Java do we find the trades practised.
The villager is a farmer, and since rice is the chief article of food and this must be raised by irrigation channels in a hilly country like Java, the villagers are, as a matter of course, compelled to live at peace with one another, becoming interdependent through the production of the staff of life.
A Moslem family that becomes Christian soon experiences deprivation. The so-called "silent power" soon makes its influence felt, ostracising them from every privilege.
This becomes the more easy to understand when we remember that the division of the cultivable soil and of the water supply with all other civil rights and privileges, are entrusted by Dutch law to the Mohammedan village government, in which the Moslem sheikh or priest enjoys an ex-officio vote.
Because of this peculiar condition of life in the East Indies, the writer and other missionaries in Java have purposely settled in an inland district in the very midst of the Mohammedan population, where those families who have embraced Christianity may gather about the mission centre and gradually form a nucleus (in course of time a village or town), where independent legal privileges may be enjoyed and the people ruled over by their own native Christian chiefs. In this manner these communities can gradually become "a salt" and "a light" for their Mohammedan environment.
Of very much importance in this connection is the action taken by Her Majesty, our beloved Queen Wilhelmina, who—at the request of our former Minister of Colonies, the Honorable Mr. Van Idenburg, at present Governor of Paramaribo, in South America—commissioned the States-General of the Netherlands to describe and protect the legal status of the native Christians.
By reason of this our Christian converts can now claim at least the right of existence, and even the native Christian woman can obtain that justice before the law to which she is entitled.