Women inspire Omas to keep fighting<\/p>\n
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
More than a hundred years have passed since Raden Adjeng Kartini
\ntried to improve the literacy rate of Javanese women, yet today's
\ngeneration of Kartinis face no less a struggle.<\/p>\n
It is no longer a matter of literacy ratios between men and
\nwomen, but a more intense struggle in correcting gender myopia --
\nthe ingrained attitudes about the relative roles and power
\nbetween females and males.<\/p>\n
One of those at the forefront of this struggle is Tapi Omas
\nIhromi, a softly spoken woman whose smile can inspire, and whose
\nlaughter fills the timid with courage.<\/p>\n
Spending most of her life observing and working for the plight
\nof women, Omas -- as she is known to those closest to her --
\ntogether with several other concerned women, set up the
\nConvention Watch Working Group in 1994.<\/p>\n
That was a full decade after Indonesia ratified the 1979 UN
\nConvention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
\nAgainst Women (CEDAW).<\/p>\n
\"We undertook research about people's awareness of the (CEDAW)
\ncommitments, on those whom we thought should have that awareness,
\nsuch as law graduates, judges, law lecturers. We found that their
\nawareness was limited,\" Omas said in an interview recently.<\/p>\n
Based on this preliminary research, the working group has
\nsince conducted various workshops on CEDAW, as well as gender
\nissues at schools of law at various universities across
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
Law students became the group's agents of change because they
\nare considered the most sensitive to gender issues, Omas said.<\/p>\n
\"Law students have always been taught that a just law is one
\nwithout discrimination, but law has a different impact on men and
\nwomen, which is why we need to look at it through a gender
\nperspective.\"<\/p>\n
The immediate result was the establishment of gender studies
\nat various universities across the country, such as at the
\nUniversity of Indonesia -- which Omas helped establish -- at
\nUdayana University in Bali, and at Brawijaya University in
\nMalang, East Java.<\/p>\n
Another significant breakthrough was the inclusion of gender
\nawareness at the Attorney General's Office, as part of refresher
\ncourses and for candidate attorneys.<\/p>\n
\"We were lucky -- a former student of mine was working there
\nand helped us establish the course. To date, we have completed
\ncourses for more than 800 attorneys,\" Omas said.<\/p>\n
Omas' concern for the plight of women did not originate from
\npersonal experience, however, but rather through observation of
\nhow traditional societies treated women, especially in her native
\nBatak culture.<\/p>\n
\"I saw how Batak men treated women. I saw with my own eyes how
\nthey had no hesitation in hitting their wives. Domestic violence
\nis regarded as an everyday thing. I must have been about 14 at
\nthe time,\" Omas related.<\/p>\n
Born in Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra, on April 2, 1930,
\nOmas' career in law was a stroke of fate. Moving with her brother
\n-- national hero Tahi Bonar Simatupang -- to Jakarta, Omas
\nattended the University of Indonesia's law school in Jakarta
\nbecause she had \"no choice.\"<\/p>\n
\"It was the only school that accepted social science high
\nschool majors, as the school of social sciences and politics
\n(FISIP) was still nonexistent then,\" she explained.<\/p>\n
Law school was a real eye opener for Omas. \"I learned about
\nhuman rights, about the beauty of universal human rights, but
\nthat in reality many women were exempted from it\".<\/p>\n
After graduating in 1958, Omas continued her studies at
\nCornell University, Ithaca, New York, majoring in cultural
\nanthropology.<\/p>\n
\"For one thing, Indonesian law and the law in the United
\nStates are very different. And another, I have great interest in
\nlearning about culture; cultural law especially,\" she said,
\nciting that marriage law in traditional societies was closely
\nlinked to women issues.<\/p>\n
She married Ihromi, a Sundanese, at Ithaca in 1959, among
\nother reasons, to \"avoid shaming the family\" because of their
\ndifferences in ethnic group and culture. Ihromi is now a
\nprofessor at the School of Theology in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"Marrying out of ethnic group, a Batak would lose his or her
\ncultural privileges. That was why, in today's practice, the non-
\nBatak would be 'adopted' into a Batak family before marriage,\"
\nOmas explained.<\/p>\n
Back in Jakarta, she taught an introduction to anthropology at
\nher alma mater, and helped establish the school's social sciences
\ndepartment -- which would eventually become the FISIP.<\/p>\n
\"In a way, I was distancing myself from the rigid, 'corseted'
\nscience of law toward social sciences,\" she said, her laughter
\ncrisp.<\/p>\n
When calls for gender studies became a world trend, the same
\nalso came from students of the social sciences department, and
\nOmas helped develop the university's first group for women's
\nstudies in 1978.<\/p>\n
Since then the University of Indonesia's Center for Women and
\nGender has had a postgraduate program on women's studies, a study
\nunit on gender and development, a women's studies group and the
\nConvention Watch Working Group.<\/p>\n
Omas' students and former students remember her as a \"mother\"-
\nfigure, besides being a well-loved teacher.<\/p>\n
In an event commemorating her 73rd birthday, former student
\nPaulus Tangdilintin, who has now become a professor, said, \"she
\nenabled many students, including myself, to be reinspired in our
\nstudies.\"<\/p>\n
\"Articulation is Ibu Omas' prominent trait,\" said another
\nformer student, Yulfita Raharjo, while Francisia Seda remembered
\nOmas as once saying to her, \"the teaching process is also a
\nlearning process; a teacher is not smarter than the student.\"<\/p>\n
Now in her 73rd year, three years after she formally retired
\nfrom her position at the university, Omas has remained active in
\nboth teaching and the working group.<\/p>\n
\"When I still see women getting raped or being trafficked, I
\nfeel that I have to go on.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/women-inspire-omas-to-keep-fighting-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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