Nyai Ahmad Dahlan
Nyai Ahmad Dahlan Siti Walidah, better known as Nyai Ahmad Dahlan , was a female emancipation figure, wife of Muhammadiyah founder Ahmad Dahlan, and National Heroine of Indonesia. Nyai Ahmad Dahlan was born Siti Walidah in Kauman, Yogyakarta, in 1872 to Kyai Haji Muhammad Fadli, an ulama and member of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta; the area housed many religious figures from the palace. She was homeschooled in various aspects of Islam, including Arabic and the Qu'ran; she read the Qu'ran in the Jawi script. Nyai Ahmad Dahlan married her cousin, Ahmad Dahlan. As he was busy developing the Islamic group Muhammadiyah at the time, she followed him in his travels. However, as some of Ahmad Dahlan's reformationist views on Islam were considered radical, the couple at times received threats; for example, before a scheduled trip to Banyuwangi in East Java they received death threats from conservatives there. In 1914 she established the prayer group Sopo Tresno ; she and her husb...