Dr Rebecca Meckelburg



Rebecca Meckelburg

The Pandemic and Muslim Women's Leadership:
Surprising Outcomes

Dr Rebecca Meckelburg is a research scholar and lecturer in the Development studies postgraduate program at the Interdisciplinary Faculty, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana. Her research interests focus on Indonesian politics and social change with special focus on the study of non-elite forms of social and political organisation. Her recent research projects have examined the Politics of Covid-19 responses in Indonesia at local and national levels.

The Pandemic and Muslim Women's Leadership: Surprising Outcomes

Initiatives by civil society organisations in response to the multiple crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia have been critical in the capacity of many local communities to mitigate health, social and economic problems. Women leaders have played critical roles both formally and informally in these responses at local and regional levels when state responses have been slow and weak. This presentation examines Muslim women’s leadership in organisations in Aceh and Banten, highlighting how pre-existing relations of community trust or otherwise to government can produce different responses from women leading in local communities.