TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Punches to punchlines: A chat with Sakdiyah Ma’ruf
The hijabi stand-up comedian who tackles everything from conservatism to climate crisis talks about using punchlines to uplift the downtrodden and the oppressed.
Change Size
(Courtesy of Sakdiyah Ma’ruf)
There’s something about Sakdiyah Ma’ruf that draws you in the moment she steps on stage.
Perhaps it’s her appearance: A hijabi woman in Indonesia’s notoriously male standup scene. Or it could also be her shtick: Politely acerbic barbs delivered with a healthy touch of self-deprecation and humility.
Yet beyond the laughs she gets for laughing about her own upbringing (Hadhrami-Arabic, highly conservative Muslim) or unusual career path (her father telling their neighbors she was pursuing a degree in medicine instead of English literature), there is always a certain edge to them, a certain sharpness that while not enough to draw blood, will certainly leave a mark should you devote more time thinking about them.
I caught up with Sakdiyah shortly after her appearance on The Jakarta Post’s Game Changer discussion on May 18, where she warmed up the stage before joining a panel of women discussing gender issues in the workforce.
While she and everyone struck an optimistic tone throughout the discussion, Sakdiyah’s opening material retained that sardonic tone she is famous for: Spotlighting how women’s voices are so unheard that they needed an event titled #HearHer, or wondering about how having women who study medicine as your neighbors can solve the problem of uneven access to health care in communities.
I certainly did my fair share of laughing during the act, but as I thought more about them, I realized it does feel iffy laughing about someone else’s misfortunes, even if they come from a place of laughing-with instead of laughing-at.
Her answer to that? It’s to “not become a victim of my own story.”
