Talking Indonesia

Queer Muslims and Their Allies Amid Indonesia’s conservative turn, the moral panics of the 2010s and the introduction of the draconian Criminal Code in 2022, LGBTQI+ people are as vulnerable as at any time in the country’s modern history. In a nation with the world’s largest Muslim population and where religion plays a central role in defining belonging and nationalism, the identities of queer Indonesian Muslims provide valuable insight into how these subjectivities are negotiated in everyday life. How do queer Muslims maintain their faith and religious practices in an increasingly hostile environment? While in the West religion and queerness are often seen as incompatible, how and why do LGBTQI+ Indonesian Muslims hold onto their faith? How does progressive Islam inform the work of their Allies and what support do they provide? In this week's episode Jemma chats with Dr Diego Garcia Rodriguez, a Leverhulme-funded Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham. His book, 'Gender, Sexuality and Islam in