Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – After wrapping up a national gathering last week, women's rights activists say they are planning to educate themselves politically and seek a bigger role in administrations and local legislative councils.

The activists argue women can no longer stay at home and trust their husbands or male relatives to fight for their rights and welfare, pointing to the issuance of several sharia-inspired bylaws in various parts of the country as proof.

"We need more women representatives because those gender-biased sharia bylaws are actually the products of male domination in local administrations and councils," women's activist Zohra Andi Baso of Makassar, South Sulawesi, told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

She noted that in the South Sulawesi regencies of Takalar and Enrekang, which had no women on their legislative councils, the local administrations easily enacted ordinances to regulate what women wear.

Since regional autonomy was put into place in 2001, at least 23 sharia-inspired bylaws have been adopted in five provinces in this predominantly Muslim country. Supporters argue the measures reduce social ills and bolster morality.

The trend has caused alarm among some Muslims and members of other religions, who fear it could increase Islamic fundamentalism.

Some of the bylaws are gender-neutral, such as those requiring schoolchildren to become literate in the Koran. Others focus on women, allowing authorities to arrest them as prostitutes if they are on the street alone after dark, or charge them with indecency if they don't follow a dress code.

"If we can't change the conditions in our areas, I would not be surprised if there were more bylaws like this in the coming years," said activist Surayya Kamaruzzaman of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

She said besides getting more women involved in politics, it is important to educate them in self-advocacy, since most women currently involved in local administrations and councils have rarely spoken out for their rights.

Nursjahbani Katjasungkana, a prominent women activist who is also a House of Representatives legislator with Commission III on law and legislation, said what she called the growing abuse of women in the name of religion shows the failure of Indonesian women's activism.

"The women's movement, made up of legislators, bureaucrats and activists, is not consistent and is poorly coordinated in fighting for their rights. That's why we fail to counter this kind of fundamentalism," she said.

Nursjahbani said women's activists did not actively participate when the House and the government were deliberating some laws, including the law on Aceh governance.

That measure affirmed Aceh's right to adopt sharia laws. Women there have been detained for failing to wear headscarves and, along with men, have faced caning for such offenses as adultery and gambling.

"Where were they at that time? If they had learned well from their past experiences, they would have started to take more concrete actions, rather than just talking or holding discussions at forums," Nursjahbani said.