Feminists voice concern over abusive husbands

JAKARTA (JP): A group of feminists renewed their concern on Thursday that women were vulnerable to violence perpetrated by their husbands or partners while at home.

In its year-end report, the Mitra Perempuan women's crisis center revealed 113 cases of abuse against women in the capital, 60 percent of which took place inside the home.

"Domestic battery is classified as verbal, physical, psychological and sexual abuse, although a combination of two or three types of assault was found in some cases," the center's executive director Rita Serena Kalibonso said.

She added that the center's report showed 23 cases of combined abuse.

The crisis said it found the prolonged economic crisis had contributed to the rise in domestic violence. "But the crisis was not the source of the domestic battery, because the violence already existed," Rita said.

Rita said domestic violence was not linked to education, as it was revealed in the report that more or less half of the victims and perpetrators were high school graduates.

"Higher education does not mean better gender awareness because women and men from any educational background can become the victims and perpetrators of the violence respectively," she said.

The center's other activist, Purnianti, a criminologist, blamed the domestic violence on the paternalistic culture widely adopted in Indonesia.

"Sadly, women preserve the condition by teaching their daughters to remain inferior to men," Purnianti said.

She said that from an early age, women in the country had been inculcated to obey orders from their husbands.

"This has caused men to think they can do anything toward women. In a situation such as this, enhancing law enforcement cannot solely be relied on to solve gender issues," Purnianti said.

She suggested that ulemas and religious leaders take part in curbing domestic battery by not exploiting certain religious teachings to undermine women's rights.

Rita said she was delighted to find that 23 percent of the women surveyed dared report the violence they suffered to the police and 44 percent of them disclosed abuse against them to their relatives.

She said the introduction of the new special police unit in charge of domestic battery had encouraged gender awareness among the public.

Separately, rights activist Albert Hasibuan said domestic violence reflected conflicts in society.

"The home is the smallest societal group and if violence occurs in it, it will surely effect a larger group," Albert said.

Albert, who is a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, said the center's concern should be taken into account.

"Violence against anyone is a human rights violation," he said.

To curb domestic violence, Albert stressed the importance of human rights education. (04)