Kesuksesan tentu diinginkan oleh semua orang. Lebih-lebih kesuksesan dunia akhirat. Bagaimana Allah meridhoi semua aktivitas yang dilakukan hambanya. Itu yang terpenting. Sebagai seorang perempuan yang merasa terikat dengan hukum-hukum Allah. Dan juga merasa perlu untuk mencapai sebuah kesuksesan dalam hidup. Maka mesti mencari cara untuk bisa menengahi keduanya. Menginginkan sukses dunia akhirat dan senantiasa diridhoi oleh Allah SWT.

Mungkin bagi seorang perempuan tidaklah mudah. Perempuan berbeda dengan laki-laki. Laki-laki bisa beraktivitas di sektor publik manapun, selama itu halal. Perempuan yang mengetahui posisinya dalam agama tentu mengetahui koridornya. Allah telah membatasi perempuan untuk kebaikan perempuan itu sendiri dan agamnya. Hendaknya seorang muslimah tidak banyak menghabiskan waktu di luar rumah, apalagi jika sudah berkeluarga. Allah Maha Tahu aturan yang terbaik untuk hamba-Nya.

Ini adalah perkara yang dilematis. Di sisi lain kita ingin menghidupi diri kita sendiri juga membantu keluarga. Namun, sebagai seorang muslimah tentunya kita harus mengetahui kewajiban kita, jika pada akhirnya kita akan menjadi seorang istri dan ibu. Dalam aturan islam, perempuan adalah ummu wa rabatul bayt (Ibu dan pengatur rumah tangga). Inilah posisi terbaik untuk para perempuan. Tidak usah terlalu menginginkan karir yang gemilang, sementara rumah tangga tidak terurus. Banyak fakta yang membuktikan kegagalan rumah tangga akibat mengabaikan peran ini. Seiring dengan ide feminisme yang terus disusupi pada pribadi perempuan-perempuan muslim.

Sebagai seorang muslimah, saya tentunya juga ingin sukses dunia dan akhirat. Saya ingin segala aktivitas keduniaan saya diridhoi oleh Allah SWT. Tidak ada salahnya untuk bermimpi dan bercita-cita dari sekarang. Ada beberapa pekerjaan yang menurut saya aman untuk perempuan dan juga bisa mendatangkan pahala. Insya Allah mudah-mudahan bisa terwujudkan dalam hidup saya. Siapapun yang baca, doakan ya! Amin…

1. Penulis

Alhamdulillah, untuk saat ini aktivitas menulis telah saya tekuni. Melalui menulis, kita bisa berdakwah. Kita bisa menyebarkan ide-ide islam. Kita pun bisa beramal jariyah, jika melalui tulisan kita, orang mendapatkan hidayah. Selain itu, menulis juga merupakan pekerjaan aman bagi perempuan jika kelak berkeluarga. Menulis bisa dilakukan di rumah. Kita bisa menulis buku dan mengirim artikel ke media. Menulis tidak akan menyita waktu perempuan di luar rumah.

2. Dosen

Dosen atau akademisi merupakan posisi yang bagus untuk para muslimah. Muslimah bisa menciptakan figur yang baik di kalangan mahasiswa. Melihat banyaknya dosen yang berpikiran liberal dan kurang islami, ada baiknya seorang muslimah bisa menjadi teladan di kalangan kampus. Biasanya, mahasiswa mudah kagum dan menerima apa pemikiran dosennya. Untuk itu, pekerjaan dosen bisa kita jadikan sebagai sarana untuk menyampaikan ide-ide islam dengan kata lain berdakwah. Bukankah bisa menjadi amal jariyah?

Menurut saya, kita harus mencetak intelektual-intelektual muslimah yang bisa berpikiran kritis, mengetahui masalah dan aktif untuk mewujudkan perubahan dan tentu saja capable dalam bidang keilmuannya. Kita tidak boleh kalah dengan para perempuan-perempuan feminis di luar sana. Dengan kecerdasan mereka dan upaya mereka untuk merecoki perempuan islam melalui pemikiran batil mereka. Untuk itulah diperlukan muslimah-muslimah yang tangguh, cerdas, intelek, dan berkepribadian islam seperti Fatimah az-Zahra untuk mewujudkan perubahan yang lebih baik. Menjadi dosen merupakan salah satu cara yang aman bagi wanita untuk mewujudkan hal-hal tersebut yang punya bargaining position di kalangan mahasiswa dan juga masyarakat. Seorang dosen bisa berdakwah kepada para mahasiswanya. Pekerjaan sebagai dosen juga tidak menyita waktu yang banyak untuk perempuan. Insya Allah perempuan masih bisa mengatur rumah tangganya dengan baik.

3. Pengusaha

Rasulullah bersabda 9 pintu rezeki ada dalam perdagangan. Pekerjaan sebagai pengusaha merupakan sunnah rasulullah. Biasanya pengusaha perempuan tidak perlu banyak bergerak ke luar rumah. Apalagi kalau usahanya semacam toko-toko (toko pakaian, buku, salon, restaurant, hotel dll.) mereka bisa berdiam di tokonya atau di rumahnya, tinggal menyuruh karyawan (tidak semudah itu kaleee…hehe…) intinya, seorang businesswoman tak perlu banyak berperan di aktivitas publik. Sesungguhnya ini lebih aman untuk perempuan, tapi tetap produktif. Ingin mencontohi khadijah seorang businesswoman dan istri salihah. Semoga bisa terkabul ya Allah…Amin..amin…amin…

Getting scholarship definitely makes everyone excited especially to study abroad. Study abroad gives us many chances to experience everything. It also gives us new knowledge than can improve ourselves. Everyone has his/her own impression and that will make us different from the first. For me, getting scholarship through IELSP program to study in the U.S. gave me many experiences and knowledge such as the learning system and personality wise, improved my language skill, and met with international friends.

First of all, living and studying in the U.S gave me a lot of knowledge, for example, the learning system and behavior. I like the way they taught us English. Everything was organized. Before the class began, the teacher had prepared all the materials that they wanted to give to us. They usually put all the materials that we would have in the white board, so we knew what we were going to learn throughout that day. Sometimes, they put what the next homework that we would do tonight, so we knew the agenda. Also, we could easily contact the teacher by an e-mail. We could ask her if we needed an aid and they would help us with pleasure. If we missed the class, the materials would easily to find out in the website where we had registered. The website was updated everyday and all homework and assignment were posted on the website, so we didn’t need to worry. As a student I really enjoyed the class. I could study well. It definitely affected my study habit. I studied happily and understand well. In addition, the teacher appreciated the time. We could ask the teacher in her room before and after the class, but we had to make an appointment. If we had something didn’t understand we just met them and discussed the things. They would teach us gladly. If someday I were a lecturer, I will do that and adopt the teacher personality. I also have changes in my personality such as more focused on studying and more detailed. I followed the learning system, so it affected on my studying. The teacher really did good job in teaching, so it forced me to study hard and well. The teachers gave us a lot of homework. I had to do them perfectly to have a great score. I also learnt from the teacher did and it would be a good learning system as a teacher to adopt. All in all, I have already known the learning system, teacher behavior, and my study habit changed.

Second, through IELSP program as long as two month absolutely improve my English skill. Now, I know how to write an essay in organized paragraphs. I can differentiate where the topic sentence, the main points, and the details are. I learnt to arrange a good content. I easily to write something especially if I brainstorm first and I make the outline. It will guide me to write well with a lot of ideas. I also learnt grammar from writing. The teacher would correct our writing and I could make the better from the correction. My writing skill has increased gradually. In addition, I think my listening and speaking skill has increased. I know approximately 95 % what the native speaker says. All classes were really helpful. Everyday we could listen to English, real English from native speaker. In the class, we also watched and discussed some controversial topics. The teacher invited a guest to talk about one of controversial topics. The teacher brought us to visit the bilingual school for listening to the short lecturing about bilingual education that became one of the controversial topics in the U.S. I also listened to the English news everyday, and I felt I could understand what they talked about. I listened to different kinds of topics from children program, teenagers, and news. My speaking also increases well. I can speak without thinking and translating. Before I studied at the Intensive English Program in CSU, I had bad English speaking. I was so slow and thought before spoke. Gradually, I could speak well because everyday we talked to the native speaker such as my teachers, my dorm mates, and my roommate. Also, I did a lot of things in the speaking class. We made conversation partner. We discussed many things about my culture and their culture. I also joined in conversation group. We met once a week. The leader was native speaker and the members were us, Indonesia and Japanese students. In brief, through this program, I can improve my English well.

Next, the pluses of this program are I could meet and study with international students and absolutely Indonesian friends from different area. I could make friends with Arabic, Japan, Korea, Chinese friends. I could study together with them. I have just known the feeling study with them. We also went together in different beautiful places in Fort Collins even Denver, for example, Rocky Mountain, Coyote Ridge for hiking, Denver Art Museum, Aquarium, Old Town. In addition, I have new family. Through this program all grantees have gotten along together. We are even closer and it will be difficult if we are separated. I am happy because I can meet with all the best students from each area in Indonesia. IELSP has done a great job in selecting the students. They are great and humble. Although we sometimes had a little quarrel, we could manage it and get along anymore. A little quarrel made our groups more memorable. All grantees will remember this one. In summary, IELSP program has a lot of advantages that I will not forget.

In conclusion, Indonesian English Language Study Program is really great scholarship that gives chance to Indonesian students to study in the U.S. I get many experiences and knowledge from this program. I gain different personality especially in learning system, my English skill improves well, and I can meet with international students and get together with the best students throughout Indonesia. Unfortunately, this program is so short. We couldn’t learn English more. Two months was really short for us, all grantees. This program should be a little longer so we can learn more. Also, I hope this program gives another chance to experience the real English class, the native speaker class. It might give a chance to grantees to come in one of classes in the host university depends on the major. Therefore, we can know how the learning system in the university related to our own major. However, overall this program is really great. I am happy to be part of this program. Thank you very much for all the officers that have worked hard for this program and our studying in the United States.

Talking about woman is always interesting, starting from her beauty, appearance, and passion. Nowadays, in the rise of freedom of woman, woman life is still in poverty, assault, and discrimination include in Islamic country. Ironically, feminism is considered as a final answer for solving this problem. What makes it? The social system that we use today is capitalism secularism, separating religion with life and country.

Woman in Capitalism

First, when we talk about women in capitalism, we might think about exploitation. Women become commercial thing especially in entertaining industry, for example, they work as an actress or model. They even expose their body that must be closed. They don’t cover their body properly. They also work hard to expre

ss themselves. They think that they will be successful if they can work in various fields. In fact, they leave their real obligation to keep their family. The impacts are husband want to cheat with another woman and children will lose their mother’s love. In addition, children will grow without their mother’s affection and might grow in bad personality. In short, capitalism just wants to exploit woman.

islam, woman is treated well. Islam keeps the purity of woman. Islam forbids woman show their part of body out except face and hand. With this way, woman becomes safe from man's eyes. Also, islam prohibits a woman show her beauty (tabarruj) in front of strange man. Now, many women work as model, walk in a catwalk. They have to keep their body, weight, and appearance. They show off their body with sexy dress even they act nude. They don’t mind expelling much money just for treating their beauty.

Secondly, seeing women in capitalism, we can observe in social life now. Many young people express themselves in inappropriate way. They get dress sexily. They go steady. They have a sex before getting married and use drugs. It brings new cases, abortion and HIV/AIDS. In addition, hedonism becomes a new culture in youth life include in Indonesia. They are stylist and fashionable. They follow western life style. As a result, they leave their religion and don’t know deeply about this peaceful religion.

Woman in Islam

Next, islam prohibits women interact with men freely and mingle with those who are not mahram, such as going out together without certain limitation. The impact of this action is free sex. Besides, islam doesn’t oblige women to work outside. The safe place for women is in their house. They treat their husband and children well. They manage their household. Because the main obligation of women in islam is a good wife and mother and manage the household, so islam gives a right for women to earn a living from their husband. In conclusion, that is the best position for woman to keep their holiness, because Allah, The Creator knows what the best for His servant.