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Vol. 31 No. 2 (2025): Jurnal Al Qalam

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Jul 21, 2025
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Nov 13, 2025

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READING IRAQ FROM INDONESIA: DIALOGUES BETWEEN IRAQI LITERATURE AND INDONESIAN SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXTS

https://doi.org/10.31969/alq.v31i2.1710
Ita Rodiah
Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University of Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Corresponding Author(s) : Ita Rodiah

ita.pgn@gmail.com

Al-Qalam, Vol. 31 No. 2 (2025): Jurnal Al Qalam

Abstract

This study addresses a critical gap in global literary discourse, the near absence of Southeast Asian
perspectives in interpreting Arab post-secular fiction. While Iraqi literature is often analyzed within
Middle Eastern frameworks, this study argues for a necessary transregional approach. Focusing on
Inaam Kachachi’s Tashari, it examines how the Christian-Iraqi protagonist, Wardiyah Iskandar,
whose narrative embodies sacred agency, ritual memory, and moral dislocation, resonates ethically
and affectively within Indonesia’s pluralistic, post-authoritarian, and culturally contested context.
The study aims to: (1) analyze the reinterpretation of Iraqi post-secular narratives through
Indonesia’s sociocultural and religious context; (2) reveal ethical and spiritual rearticulations
emerging from transregional encounters; and (3) reframe Arab trauma fiction through Southeast
Asian hermeneutics. Methodologically, it adopts an interdisciplinary qualitative approach combining
post-secular literary theory, sociocultural analysis, and comparative hermeneutics. A close reading
of Tashari is conducted alongside Indonesia’s discourses on interfaith pluralism, spiritual
fragmentation, and moral reformulation. The dialogic mapping reveals interpretive pathways
neglected by dominant paradigms. The findings show that Tashari functions as a transregional
ethical archive, a literary space where theological boundaries blur, interfaith solidarities form, and
sacred dissent emerges. Indonesian readers, shaped by histories of colonialism, authoritarianism,
and religious negotiation, actively reconstruct the novel’s moral and spiritual meanings,
transforming Iraqi suffering into a shared space of ethical reflection and collective mourning. This
study proposes a new model of transregional literary ethics, demonstrating how post-secular fiction
mediates cross-cultural understanding, rehumanizes the other, and generates transformative moral
and spiritual resistance across contested geographies.

Keywords

Iraqi Literature, Literary Voice, Tashari, Transregional Ethic
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