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The bravest coward | Sakdiyah Ma'ruf | TEDxUbud

"Two Transylvania University Students Assaulted by Man Wielding Machete"

TEDx Talks

Published on Jul 19, 2016

Sakdiyah tells the story of growing up in one of Indonesia's most conservative communities and how she is really not at all brave. She may be Indonesia's first Muslim female stand-up comedian and held up as a role model around the world, but she is not another Malala. She is just a woman who still needs to fight her own battles before having the strength to fight the extremists. So, whatever you do, don't call Sakdiyah Ma'ruf brave.

Sakdiyah Ma'ruf is one of the first Indonesian Muslim female stand-up comics. Passionate advocate for freedom and equality, she juggles life behind the mic as a comedian and interpreter.

Producers have asked Sakdiyah to censor her own jokes, telling her that she is "too conceptual, theoretical, laden with message," but the stakes are too high for Sakdiyah to stop. Having grown up watching U.S.-based comedians drive their points home, she decided to use the same medium to get people talking about issues plaguing her own country.

Sakdiyah received the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent at Oslo Freedom Forum 2015. She currently works with the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS): and the Moral Courage Project, New York University. She received her BA in English from UGM, Yogyakarta, and is working on her M.A.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZuUCMLPYWM

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Sakdiyah Ma'ruf reveals challenges of life as an Indonesian female Muslim stand-up comedian

Lateline

Updated 25 Oct 2016, 10:49pm

Video: Indonesia's first female Muslim stand-up comedian challenges Islamic fundamentalism with humour (Lateline)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-25/indonesias-first-female-muslim-standup-comedian/7965086

Related Story: Muslim model Mariah Idrissi breaking down barriers in fashion world
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-25/muslim-model-mariah-idrissi-breaks-down-fashion-barriers/7961478

Map: Indonesia - http://www.google.com/maps/place/Indonesia/@-5,120,5z

For years Sakdiyah Ma'ruf snuck around behind her parents' backs.

Her conservative Indonesian Muslim family would never have condoned her choice of career: comedian.

But her religion and her family's conservativism have helped shape Ma'ruf's unique brand of humour as Indonesia's first female Muslim stand-up.

"I was not allowed to go out of the house after school, I was not allowed to participate in any extra-curricular activities, let alone student organisations. I was not supposed to get to know members of the opposite sex," she told Lateline.

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"I thought at one point, 'wow my Dad is such a great supporter of lesbianism'."
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As Ma'ruf was making a name for herself doing stand-up shows and media interviews, she was also going to great lengths to hide her budding career from her father.

"My first appearance on national television my parents did not know about it. I was very lucky that my dad was abroad at that time," she said.

She said she was almost found out when the Sunday newspaper ran an interview with her and her photograph on their front page.

"They did not tell me they were going to run the story on the front page and so I freaked out when I saw my face on the front page of the Sunday newspaper and I just I was panicking," she said.

"I ran to the nearest newsstand and several other local stores to buy all the newspapers that they had to prevent my father from seeing that news."

Combining religion and humour

She has since broken the news to her parents and while they were disappointed she was not going to continue in her job at a university, they have accepted the decision.

Although she pokes fun at religious conservativism in her country, Ma'ruf says comedy actually helps her spiritual side — a fact she pointed out to one of her university lecturers.

"One of my supervisors quoted the Koran and said 'how can a Muslim do comedy? Because laughing can distract you from your focus, can distract you from worshipping god'," she said.

"I answer him by quoting another verse from the Koran that the one that knows him or herself the best is the one who will know his or her creator and that is the reason I do stand-up comedy.

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"It helps me to get to know myself better, to get to know my society better and it helps me eventually to get to know God."
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Ma'ruf's popularity has grown in Indonesia and on the international stage after she received last year's Oslo Freedom Forum's Vaclav Havel International prize for creative dissent.

Next month she is the star speaker at the Chaser Lecture in Sydney.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-25/indonesian-female-muslim-stand-up-comedian-sakdiyah-maruf/7964528

.. i just saw her interviewed .. lol, she's a character, of the best kind ..