Nyai Ahmad Dahlan

Nyai Ahmad Dahlan
Portrait of Nyai Ahmad Dahlan
Born	Siti Walidah 1872 Kauman, Yogyakarta, Dutch East Indies
Died	31 May 1946 (aged 73–74) Kauman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Resting place	Great Mosque of Kauman, Yogyakarta
Nationality	Indonesian
Occupation	Social worker
Years active	1914–1946
Awards	National Heroine of Indonesia

Siti Walidah (1872 – 31 May 1946), 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 (Muslim religious leader) 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 Qur'an; she read the Qur'an 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 (literally Who Loves); she and her husband took turns leading the group in reading the Qur'an and discussing its meaning. Soon she began focusing on passages in the Qur'an that dealt with women's issues. By teaching reading and writing through the group, the couple slowed the Christianization of Java through schools sponsored by the colonial government.

With her husband and several other Muhammadiyah leaders, Nyai Ahmad Dahlan discussed the formalization of Sopo Tresno as a women's group. Rejecting the first proposal, Fatimah, they decided on the name Aisyiyah, derived from Muhammad's wife Aisha. The new group was formalized on 22 April 1917, with Nyai Ahmad Dahlan as its head. Five years later the organization became a part of Muhammadiyah.