Facing tough times in post-tsunami Aceh<\/p>\n
Tess Bacalla, Contributor, Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
Rahmi is about 14, but has already lost her world as she knew it.
\nOne can see it in her sad, soulful eyes, and in her inability
\nto smile. And the reason is evident just by surveying what
\nsurrounds her here in this northwest Sumatra city.<\/p>\n
Several months after the powerful Dec. 26 earthquake struck
\nand triggered a tsunami around the Indian Ocean, this once
\nbustling coastal city remains desolate.<\/p>\n
In many areas, piles of rubble are the only proof that there
\nwere once houses and buildings, while in others muddy boats
\nscattered willy-nilly far from the shore show just how strong the
\nwaves that swept into Banda Aceh were.<\/p>\n
There are also places where the stench of death still hangs in
\nthe air, even as a few men sort through the debris.<\/p>\n
Save for a younger brother, Rahmi is all that is left of her
\nfamily. She doesn't know it, but Aceh's female population in
\nparticular has been just as decimated. In fact, the tsunami
\ndidn't just flatten this provincial capital and almost erase it
\nfrom the map; it also altered the demographics of a place that
\nwas already a man's world to begin with, and may have paved the
\nway for a hard future for Rahmi, a life that will be more
\ndifficult than what her mother or grandmother experienced.<\/p>\n
The total death toll from the tsunami that swamped coastal
\ncommunities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand and India,
\nalong with seven other countries, is more than 220,000, according
\nto international relief group Oxfam.<\/p>\n
Based on the Indonesia National Disaster Coordinating Board,
\nor NDCB, more than half of those deaths occurred in Aceh. Not
\nincluded in these figures, however, are the missing, and these
\nmay outnumber the fatalities.<\/p>\n
In many areas, including Aceh, the majority of the missing or
\ndead are women. In five villages in Aceh's Lampu'uk subdistrict,
\nthe women's group Flower Aceh said only 40 of the 750 total
\nsurvivors from a population of 5,500 were women. Other local non-
\ngovernmental organizations and international aid groups have
\nfound similar statistics in other tsunami-affected communities in
\nthe province.<\/p>\n
Oxfam says in four villages in Aceh Besar district, male
\nsurvivors outnumber the females by a ratio of three to one. In
\nfour villages in North Aceh, the female death toll made up 70
\npercent of all fatalities. In Kuala Cangkoy, 80 percent of the
\ndead were female.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, men outnumber women in the camps and
\nbarracks set up for internally displaced people, or IDPs.
\nInternational and local NGOs, as well as UN agencies, worry that
\nif what is happening in these camps and barracks is any
\nindication, the Acehnese women and girls who survived the deadly
\nwaves should brace themselves for what lies ahead.<\/p>\n
Heavier burdens, heightened risks of abuse<\/p>\n
As in other Asian societies, women are the traditional
\ncaregivers in Aceh, and perform the household chores. They still
\nperform such tasks in the camps, but these days their burden has
\nbecome heavier because of the sheer number of men and children
\nthey are expected to serve and look after.<\/p>\n
Before the tsunami, each Acehnese household could probably
\ncount on more than a pair of female hands to do the chores. Today
\nnot only is that no longer true, women and girls are expected to
\nhelp men who are not their relatives, if only because Acehnese
\nmales are \"embarrassed to be seen doing housework\", says Tesmiati
\nEmsa, who heads a women's NGO based here.<\/p>\n
Another relief worker says some widowers left with children to
\nlook after simply could not cope with the idea of becoming
\ncaregivers even to their own children, so they readily gave them
\nup to orphanages.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, NGOs and international aid agencies say many of the
\nwomen have been subjected to sexual harassment and abuse, while
\nsome have found themselves becoming victims of physical violence
\nwielded by bored or frustrated men. Erwin Setiawan of Flower Aceh
\nsays men are lashing out partly because of the stressful
\nconditions in the barracks where there is a lack of privacy and
\nwhere they are unable to practice their usual means of
\nlivelihood.<\/p>\n
But he offers no explanation why women, who are enduring the
\nsame conditions, are not reacting in the same way and instead are
\nmade to bear the brunt of the men's pent-up emotions.<\/p>\n
In fact, life in the camps and barracks is even more stressful
\nto the women because, say several observers, their needs were not
\ntaken into consideration in designing these places. For instance,
\nthere are no separate toilets for men and women. Many of these
\nhave no roofs or are made just from plastic sheets or sacks,
\nthrough which peepholes can easily be cut.<\/p>\n
\"I heard a lot of cases of men peeping while women were taking
\na shower in their temporary shelters,\" says MB Wijaksana, editor
\nin chief of Journal Perempuan, a Jakarta-based women's magazine.
\nHe says he tried to check whether the police were aware of these
\ncases, which he described as a form of sexual harassment, and
\nfound that the authorities had somehow managed not to hear about
\nthem.<\/p>\n
Personal supplies such as underwear and sanitary napkins have
\nalso apparently missed the list of basic needs provided in the
\nshelters. The lack of long-sleeved shirts and headscarves
\nessential to Acehnese women, who are predominantly Muslim like
\nthe majority of the Indonesians, has also not been remedied.
\nIn a press statement, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) observed
\nthat in the face of such unmet needs, \"women and girls become
\nreluctant to carry out public activities and even access basic
\nneeds and humanitarian assistance\".<\/p>\n
As if they didn't have enough problems, the women in the
\nshelters have also had to put up with a lack of clean water,
\nwhich means they are usually forced to fetch water elsewhere and
\nlug it back to their quarters. But according to a UNFPA
\ninformation officer in Indonesia, Maria Hulupi, some barracks are
\nin areas that make it dangerous for women to venture outside.<\/p>\n
As it is, the crowded, male-dominated environment has meant
\nthat women and girls have had to put up with being constantly
\nteased and stared at.<\/p>\n
Forced marriages<\/p>\n
The setup of many of the shelters -- with nonrelated men and
\nwomen staying in the same tents or rooms together -- has even
\nlent itself to a trend many of the female IPDs do not welcome at
\nall: forced marriages.<\/p>\n
Samsidar, who heads a subcommittee of the National Commission
\non Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), says young women
\nare being pressured to marry males staying in the same tents or
\nbarracks. Such marriages have become an \"informal rule\", she
\nsays.<\/p>\n
Journalist Wijaksana, for his part, says that the pressure to
\nmarry is greater on young single women because he says that in
\nAceh, virgins are preferred to widows, who tend to be looked down
\nupon.<\/p>\n
\"For men, the loss of a wife seems a simple thing,\" he adds.
\nBesides, says Wijaksana, shariah law forbids women from
\nremarrying within three months of the deaths of their spouses.<\/p>\n
Men can remarry any time. Nana of the Humanist Institute for
\nCooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos) cites the case of a
\nman in Meulaboh, located on the coast of Sumatra, who married his
\nsister-in-law only a week after his wife disappeared in the
\ntsunami. He thought she was dead, says Nana. A month later, the
\nwife resurfaced.<\/p>\n
Oxfam says that especially for young women, forced marriage
\nhas serious implications on their education, livelihoods and
\nreproductive health. \"Surviving women may also be encouraged to
\nhave more children, with shorter intervals between them, to
\nreplace those lost by the community,\" it also says. \"Again, this
\nhas consequences for their reproductive health and their ability
\nto earn an independent income.\"<\/p>\n
Compared with the men, fewer Acehnese women have had some
\neducation, since families give priority to sending the male
\nchildren to school. This practice is rooted in the belief that
\nthe women's best place is the home -- even though they are not
\nrecognized as household heads.<\/p>\n
Hivos's Nana says some of the women in the shelters who
\nparticipate in cash-for-work activities have admitted to her that
\nall they could do was cry when their husbands would not let them
\nleave for work without first making sure that their homes were in
\norder. Such was their fate, the women said.<\/p>\n
The harsh truth is that the social position of women in Aceh
\naccounts for their disproportionate number of deaths, say local
\nand international NGO workers. Because the tsunami smothered the
\nprovince on a Sunday, most of the women and children were at home
\nwhile many of the men were out -- socializing, running errands or
\nfishing.<\/p>\n
Other men had also not returned home for quite some time
\nbecause their jobs were elsewhere. Ironically, 70 percent of
\nAceh's pre-tsunami population consisted of women, because men
\nwere either being killed or were fleeing from the conflict
\nbetween the Indonesian Military and separatist Free Aceh Movement
\n(GAM).<\/p>\n
But most Acehnese women, unlike the men, do not know how to
\nclimb trees or swim, say some observers. This made it difficult
\nfor them to escape the raging waters of Dec. 26. Yet even those
\nwho did know how to climb trees or swim perished in the end
\nbecause they were either dragged down by the sheer weight of the
\nchildren and other family members that they tried so hard to save
\n-- in keeping with their traditional role as caregivers -- or
\nsuccumbed eventually to fatigue.<\/p>\n
Observers theorize that the long, flowing clothing that cover
\ntheir arms and legs restricted the movement of the Acehnese
\nwomen, frustrating their escape from the tsunami.<\/p>\n
Finding their voice<\/p>\n
Aid worker Nana of Hivos fears that Aceh's women survivors
\ncould only become a weaker force now that their numbers have been
\ndiminished greatly, while men could emerge more dominant. Before
\nthe tsunami women were already reluctant to speak, especially in
\npublic gatherings.<\/p>\n
Even now, despite all the hardships they have had to endure in
\npost-disaster Aceh, many women are hesitant to voice their
\nconcerns.<\/p>\n
But gender and poverty expert Yulfita Rahardjo says Acehnese
\nwomen can strengthen their position only if they could be made
\naware of their rights. She concedes, though, that men will have
\nto be educated as well on gender issues.<\/p>\n
In a gender training program she conducted a few months ago in
\nJakarta for subdistrict heads and planners in Aceh, she says it
\nwas evident that the participants -- mostly male -- did not
\nunderstand the concept of gender and even blamed the women if
\nthey were not being heard, saying the women refused to talk.<\/p>\n
Yet women in Aceh have not entirely kept mum about their needs
\nand aspirations. Some have expressed their desire to go back to
\ntheir homes and start small-scale businesses so they can rebuild
\ntheir lives.<\/p>\n
Nani Zulminarni, head of the women's rights group Pekka
\n(Program Pemberdayaan Perempuan Kepala Keluarga, or Women-Headed
\nHousehold Empowerment Program), says the women in the districts
\nwhere her organization operates are unanimous in saying that they
\ndo not want to be dependent on others. Alongside their yearning
\nto work is their dream to have a house again, a symbol of
\ndignity, especially for Acehnese women.<\/p>\n
\"No one expressed desperation and hopelessness,\" says
\nZulminarni, who notes that providing a livelihood is a very good
\nstarting point for empowering women. She says the grassroots
\nwomen's groups Pekka has helped have gained so much respect that
\ntheir members are now being invited to important community
\ngatherings. Says Zulminarni: \"It's a good sign.\"<\/p>\n
Sylvia Agustina, program officer of the UN Development Fund
\nfor Women (Unifem), says her vision for her fellow Acehnese women
\nis not just for them to return to their \"normal\" lives. Agustina,
\nwho also lost a number of her loved ones to the tsunami, says, \"I
\nwant them to have an option.\"<\/p>",
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