Jasmine's Message for Urban Muslim Girls

After its release in May 2019, the life-action movie remake of Aladdin soared at the box office in just a week. Thousands of reviews came from movie lovers, mostly containing praise; however, there were also some criticisms. What I would like to underline here is that most of these reviews only covered the comparison between the old version of Aladdin and the live-action one. Instead of comparing both of the versions, I prefer to talk about the new constructive values brought by the 2019 Aladdin. 

Princess Jasmine is a good metaphor to represent the urban Muslim girl in the Muslim world generally and particularly in Indonesia, which is the home of the largest Muslim population in the world. That is why this article summarizes the movie Aladdin from the perspective of Indonesian women. The contextual issue lies in the restrictions on the activities of women, which were developed based on safety and tradition. 

Indonesia's Generation Z and Pancasila

The young generation always reflects the spirit of being fresh, dynamic, and full of ideas. That is why Soekarno emphasized the importance of the contribution of the young to the development of Indonesia. He said in a speech, “Give me 10 youths, and I undoubtedly will shake the world.”

That statement showed how powerfully the young generation affects social change. It also puts expectation on the young generation to take responsibility for Indonesia’s growth in the future. In the current era, Indonesia’s generation Z, born between 1994 and 2010, has to be ready to take that responsibility. 

As the first generation of the digital world, generation Z is intensively attached to getting information through communication technology. They view smart-phones, not only as devices and platforms, but also as a way of life.