I am passionate about teaching, training and researching. Being trained in Islamic law and the study of Muslim societies, the vibrant development of Islamic law in society has been always of my central interest. At the moment, I am working a research project on the extent to which diverse orientations on Islamic marriage are reproduced and practiced by Muslim society in local East Java, Indonesia. I am also a lecturer at an Islamic state university in Surakarta on the same subject, with a special reference to issues of family law. I also had an experience of coordinating a project on Sharia and human rights whose main activities were training, conference and book publication. This latter work has brought me into contact with national and international scholars and organisations working on human rights. Having an earlier experience working as a managing editor of a scholarly journal, I am skilled at editing and book lay-outing. My life experiences make me believe in a meaningful quote that “Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”