Meet Sakdiyah Maruf, the female Muslim comic standing up to extremism in Indonesia

She uses humour to challenge everything wrong in society

Wearing a red hijab and gown, Sakdiyah Maruf cuts an unusual figure in a dark, smokey Jakarta bar as she reels off taboo-breaking jokes to laughter.

She’s a rare character - a female Muslim stand-up using humour to challenge prejudice and religious intolerance. Despite resistance, the 34-year-old has forged ahead.

Maruf doesn’t shy away from sensitive subjects. Her jokes touch topics like Jakarta's recent religiously-charged election to sex and alcohol. "Hijab, niqab, burqa save you from a bad hair day," she said. Maruf jokes about how women weren’t allowed to attend public events where she grew up, and that she is seeking to be more progressive.



For Maruf, comedy is a playful resistance to a creeping conservatism she believes is eroding the rights of women in Indonesia. The country has long been praised for its inclusive brand of Islam but this reputation has been tarnished by a rise in attacks on minorities and the growing influence of a vocal hardline fringe.

PHOTO:AFP

The comedian sees "more rigid and conservative practices of religion" which she believes marginalise women, and is particularly concerned about issues including early marriage and domestic violence. "The message can be very aggressive but it can be delivered in a very subtle way. You speak to people's hearts instead of their minds."

Maruf became interested in comedy at an early age by watching US sitcoms like Full House, a love that she carried to university, where she started performing in 2009. During the day, she works as an interpreter at conferences.



Early on, the comic would lie to her parents, believing they would disapprove, but as she became successful, it got harder. "We still have disagreements sometimes, but they are cool with it," she explained.

However, the greatest resistance came from conservatives. "One woman came up to me and said, 'Are you wearing this hijab for real?'," Maruff recalled.

PHOTO: AFP

Still, she hasn’t been put off. In 2015, Maruf got the Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent established by the New York-based Human Rights Foundation and last year, participated in a BBC-run global stand-up jam. She’s confident Indonesia will remain tolerant because a devout Muslim woman like herself can still go on stage and crack jokes. "If you can write 'Indonesian conservative Muslim female stand-up' in one sentence, why be so pessimistic?"

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