Sakdiyah Ma'ruf

Sakdiyah Ma'ruf is an Indonesian stand-up comedian. She is known for addressing Islamic extremism in Indonesia within her comedic routines.

Early life and education She was born into a family of Hadrami-Arabic descent in Pekalongan, Central Java. She has described the community in which she was raised as being preoccupied with its Arab identity and with the notion that it has a better sense of what “the truest and purest Islamic teachings” are than other communities in Indonesia.

Her parents, she has stated, were “very conservative” in most ways during her childhood, pressuring her “to marry one of her distant cousins,” as her mother had done. From the time she was in grade school, she has said, she enjoyed “U.S. sitcoms and comedy features.” In 2018, Ma'ruf was recognized with the BBC 100 Women award for her use of comedy to soften Islamic extremism and lessen violence against women.