Coping with Stigma and Social Exclusion of Terror-Convicts’ Wives in Indonesia: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Authors

Any Rufaedah, Universitas Nahdhatul Ulama & Universitas IndonesiaFollow
Idhamsyah Eka Putra, Persada Indonesia Y.A.I UniversityFollow

Abstract

This research aims to: (1) understand the various forms of stigma and social exclusion toward the wives of those convicted of terrorism, (2) understand the psychological impact of stigma and social exclusion toward the wives, (3) understand the coping mechanism of the wives toward stigma and social exclusion. The all Muslim participants were 24 wives of terror convicts or former convicts who lived in East Java, Central Java, and West Java. The data were collected through interviews and Focus Group Discussion (FGD), whereas interpretative psychological analysis were used to explore the participants’ experience. Results of the study show that participants were stigmatized as “terrorist,” and “ISIS.” As a result, they received verbal abuse both directly and indirectly as well as threats of physical violence. The psychological impact felt by participants were a deep sense of shame and trauma. Three participants often still regret the situation although their husbands’ arrest happened 3 to 12 years ago. The way participants deal with the stigma is through ignorance, hiding the real condition, and resettling at a different place.

Keywords

Social Exclusion, Stigma, Terrorism, Phenomenology

Author Bio(s)

Any Rufaedah is a lecturer on social psychology at Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama and senior analyst at Division for Applied Social Psychology Research Daya Makara Universitas Indonesia. She concerns with terrorism, radicalism, religious fundamentalism, women, peace, well-being. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed directly to: Any Rufaedah, Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Indonesia, Jl. Taman Amir Hamzah No. 5 Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia; Email: anyrufaidah@gmail.com.

Idhamsyah Eka Putra is a lecturer at Universitas Persada Indonesia, Jakarta and managing director at Division for Applied Social Psychology Research Daya Makara Universitas Indonesia. He received doctorat in social psychology at Johannes Keppler University of Linz. His concern is in social psychology studying prejudice, stigma, intergroup relations, and terrorism.

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of Countering ISIS Ideology for Terror Convicts and Families study (2016) headed by Professor Sarlito W. Sarwono under the Research Center of Police Science, Post Graduate School Universitas Indonesia. We would like to thank Fajar Erikha and Faisal Magrie as coordinator of this research project and Reisa S. Arimbi for her contribution on data collecting. We also would like to thank to Sapto Priyanto for his contribution on the very early version of the paper.

Publication Date

6-8-2018

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2018.3118

Recommended APA Citation

Rufaedah, A., & Putra, I. E. (2018). Coping with Stigma and Social Exclusion of Terror-Convicts’ Wives in Indonesia: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The Qualitative Report, 23(6), 1334-1346. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2018.3118