'Uproar over rape no cause for optimism'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The public uproar seen over recently-reported
\nrape cases does not guarantee that there will be fewer rapes in
\nfuture, say two feminists.<\/p>\n
According to criminologist Syarifah Sabarudin, the only hope
\nfor a reduction in rape and other forms of violence against women
\nlies in people coming to see rape as an extreme case of unequal
\nrelations between the two sexes.<\/p>\n
\"The implication would be that women would not be considered
\nas sex objects,\" Syarifah said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Advertisements would not show women as objects, nor would
\nwomen use themselves as objects, she added.<\/p>\n
The public response to recent reports of individual and gang
\nrapes, she said, has been merely a rejection of moral violations
\nand an expression of shock over the cruel incidents.<\/p>\n
\"The reaction would not have been as strong if the victim had
\nbeen a single woman who was walking alone on the street at
\nnight,\" Syarifah said.<\/p>\n
Separately, Sita Aripurnami of the non-government organization
\nKalyanamitra said that rape, particularly of a prostitute, is
\nconsidered a sanction against women challenging the notions that
\nwomen are defenseless and modest.<\/p>\n
The most publicized recent case was that of a Bekasi woman and
\nher two teenage daughters, all three of whom were raped by a gang
\nof youths in front of their husband and father.<\/p>\n
Public outrage over the case has been so great as to extend to
\nthe lawyers defending the men who stand accused of the crime.
\nLast week, the defense lawyers were attacked by a mob during a
\npre-trial hearing of a complaint filed against the police for
\nunlawful arrest of their clients. The lawyers subsequently
\ndropped the complaints against the police.<\/p>\n
Other individual and gang rapes have also been reported in
\nSouth and Central Jakarta, West and East Java, Tangerang and
\nSouth Sulawesi, in which most of the victims have been minors.<\/p>\n
Sita lamented certain remarks that have been made about some
\nof the rape victims, such as the comment that they were pretty.<\/p>\n
\"Press reports and even (Minister for Women's Affairs) Mien
\nSugandhi said the rape victims in Bekasi were pretty,\" she said.
\nIn making such remarks people implied that they were not
\nsurprised that the women were raped, Sita added.<\/p>\n
\"This contradicts the fact that girls are raised under the
\nsocietal expectation that they should be beautiful,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Sita criticized the hiring of prostitutes to play the roles of
\nthe victims in the courtroom reconstruction of the Bekasi gang
\nrape.<\/p>\n
\"Police women could have played the roles but, apparently,
\nthey were considered too 'holy,' to do so\" she said. She added
\nthat, according to another theory, the trauma of the re-enactment
\nof the crime was too great for a policewoman to bear, but that a
\nprostitute would not have difficulty coping with it.<\/p>\n
Syarifah criticized the view of some experts that there is no
\nneed to establish crisis centers for rape victims in Indonesia
\nbecause the functions of such a center can be fulfilled by the
\nvictims' extended families.<\/p>\n
\"It is actually the extended family structure which offers
\nprotection for the rapist, if he happens to be in the family,\"
\nsaid Syarifah. (anr)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/uproar-over-rape-no-cause-for-optimism-1447893297",
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