Balinese women fight for their rights

Mas Rucitadewi, Writer, Denpasar, Bali

Seventy-year-old Sagung Dewi looked at the two men sitting in front of her. One of the men was a kelian banjar, the head of a traditional village, and the other was her eldest nephew.

The two men were talking about the family's inheritance.

"Everything belongs to you. As the only man in the extended family, you are the purusa (male heir), the holder of the tangible and intangible assets," the kelian banjar said while explaining the centuries-old traditional Balinese law on family property.

The noble woman, who never married so she could take care of her nephews and nieces, could do nothing but accept the "unwritten law" established by the patrilineal Balinese Hindu constitutional body.

Tears fell down her wrinkled face when her nephew ordered her to renounce her rights over the family's estates.

"I really don't understand. It is beyond my comprehension," she said. "Is it true that traditional Balinese and Hindu law provides all male members of the family with such powerful rights and leave the women in despair?"

Sagung Dewi is not alone in her confusion. Many other Balinese women find themselves with similar questions.

Foreign anthropologists and artists usually portray Balinese women in romantic images, as goddess-like creatures with colorful flowers in their hair and glittering costumes wrapped around their slim bodies.

In real life, however, they are more like second-class members of families and communities, who have very little or no authority, even over themselves.

From birth, few if any expectations are placed on females in the patrilineal Balinese family. It is the male offspring who will continue the family line and take over the responsibilities and authority within both the family and the community.

Therefore, women are not entitled to the family's property -- one of the ways that the women of Bali have their rights violated.

Many women and girls living in puri (palaces), as well as those living in humble huts, have long suffered from social and gender discrimination. Widows and elderly women are sent to dilapidated nursing homes or are neglected at home by their own sons and nephews.

According to chairman of Bali's Legal Aid Institute, Gede Widiatmika, discriminations is more noticeable among aristocrats and high-caste families.

"There is a shield that still separates the traditional life inside the puri from the democratic, pluralistic and modern life outside," explained Gede, adding that this made it difficult to expect the inhabitants of the puri to have a modern view of gender issues.

Balinese culture and tradition put men and women far apart. For instance, at the communal level, women are not allowed to take part in any village meeting, especially ones that deal with issues of customary law.

Moreover, almost all traditional village chiefs, who are responsible for making various important decisions concerning the entire village, are men. In practice, they represent the women, who do not have the right to voice their own opinions.

Being born into a noble family does not make life easier for women. In fact, they face difficulties that are even more complicated. For instance, there are many customary laws that prevent them from pursuing a higher education because they are expected to take care of the domestic chores, including preparing offerings for religious rituals and life-cycle (manusia Yadnya) ceremonies.

In marriage, Balinese women are placed in a very vulnerable position.

Once a woman decides to get married, she must perform the mepamit, a farewell ceremony to her ancestral temple meaning that she no longer belongs to her own family. She will literally move to the family of her future husband.

If a marriage turns sour, women rarely dare to leave their husbands and return to their families, most of them maintaining the marriage for the sake of the children. In the process, they sometimes suffer both mental and physical abuse from their husbands, in-laws and society as well.

For an aristocratic woman, returning to her family is taboo, especially if she is married to a lower caste man. If she returns to her family compound she will be treated like a servant, and must speak in the highest form of Balinese to her own parents, brothers and sisters.

The most difficult situation faced by married women in Bali is when they bear no male children. Many women in Bali who find themselves in this situation must share their husbands with other women in the same compound. Some childless women are even sent back to their families in disgrace. Having no sons is a "legal" ticket for a husband to divorce his wife or to take other women.

Hinduism actually does not recognize discrimination in any form against women. Hindus refer to God as Sanghyang Widi, which is symbolized as neither a woman nor a man.

But in its more earthly manifestation, Sanghyang Widi is portrayed as Linggayoni, a unity of masculine and feminine elements, or in Balinese language purusa (male) and pradana (female).

In the realm of deities, people pay homage both to male gods and their wives. They honor Siva and his wife Durga, Brahma and Laksmi, Vishnu and Sarasvati. The goddesses are regarded as their husbands' shakti (spiritual power). In the real world, wives embrace this power. In Bali, wives and mothers have control over family members' spiritual lives, while male members pursue profane and social activities outside the home. This division of duties seems almost ideal in theory.

Women are regarded honorably in the ancient Hindu manuscripts Manawa Darma Castra, which implies that when a woman is respected the gods are delighted.

"This probably means that women in Hindu society are respected only in our holy books but not in our daily lives, especially for Balinese women," said I Gusti Ayu Wedharijadnya, an expert in Hinduism from the Hindu University in Bali, during a recent discussion on the revitalization of women's roles in Balinese society.

The current interpretation of women's roles in Balinese awig- awig (customary laws) must be revised to abide by the Hindu holy scripts, which actually place women in the very highest position, the lecturer said.

The present awig-awig have contributed to degrading the status of Balinese women. But to change these customary laws is like moving a huge mountain. Balinese women cannot beg their male counterparts to even consider minor revisions to the laws. So Balinese women must arm themselves with knowledge and education, as well as the courage to decide their own futures.