Gadis lets women speak for themselves
By Mehru Jaffer
JAKARTA (JP): There is much more to Kartini than her kebaya or her neat hairdo, feels Gadis Arivia, editor of Jurnal Perempuan, the country's first feminist journal.
Also director of the Media Foundation for Women, 36-year-old Arivia hopes that Kartini Day observed on Saturday will eventually be known as Women's Day, in celebration of all those other women who are also pioneers in their own right in trying to rid society of injustices.
When Arivia talks of Kartini, she does not evoke memories of a well-dressed aristocratic Javanese who was an obedient mother and wife. She imagines Kartini as an amazing young woman who was unafraid to think for herself. A woman who could be so critical and progressive even a hundred years ago.
"It is the thoughts of Kartini that have to be talked about today and not the way Kartini dressed or looked," Arivia told The Jakarta Post at the Tebet Barat office of Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan, where a staff of about 22 young people are busy practicing gender-sensitive journalism.
Apart from the journal, a radio show is compiled each week covering news about women and publications that highlight state violence against women, or the trauma and healing of domestic and political violence.
The idea is to eventually increase the representation of women in the media and to use the media to raise the consciousness of women regarding their rights as women and citizens. The hope is that approaching the world from the point of view of women may prove to be a good enough basis for transforming society.
Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan along with the Dutch embassy launced Fitriyanti's book on women's education pioneer Siti Roehana Koedus on Saturday.
Arivia is rather exceptional herself. Daughter of a diplomat, Arivia was born in India. She traveled with the family on postings to Africa, Europe and the United States. But after high school when she was 16 years old, her mother sent her back to Jakarta to touch base with her own country and people.
By this time Arivia was already familiar with the French author Simone de Beauvoir.
"At that time I did not understand why this wonderful woman writer was against marriage. I had no clue about gender issues. It was difficult for me to understand what was said in The Second Sex (a book by Simone). But I did wonder why so many men are philosophers and Simone the only woman," says Arivia, who enrolled for a three-year course in French studies at the University of Indonesia.
When she visited the French Embassy here to ask for a scholarship, she was told that Indonesia sent students of engineering to France but never to study philosophy.
In a conversation with the then French ambassador, she recalls saying that perhaps it was not enough to just build a bridge as it was also necessary to be able to understand why a bridge needed to be built. That kind of talk is what she suspects finally got her a scholarship to study post-modern philosophy in Paris where she spent two years, as if in heaven.
She had already started to write on women's issues. But it was all theory up to then. It was only in February 1998 when the economic crisis caused the price of baby milk to increase 400 percent that Arivia came face to face with reality and she joined other non-governmental organizations to protest on behalf of concerned mothers.
Arivia is one of the brains behind the "politics of milk" or Suara Ibu Peduli (SIP), when women activists took to the streets. Their actions eventually helped the historic reform movement to succeed in forcing president Suharto to resign after 32 years in office.
She has now returned to where she really belongs, in the editorial office of Jurnal Perempuan. It was not very long ago when Arivia, professor of philosophy at the University of Indonesia (she teaches the theory of feminism), realized that literature on women here was scarce. That thought gave birth to Jurnal Perempuan, at first in the form of a newsletter.
Feeling good
The topics covered do not focus on looking physically good but instead on feeling good with one's whole being. The concerns of Jurnal Perempuan, for example, are not limited to having beautiful breasts but healthy ones.
From 200 copies in 1996, over 5000 copies of the journal are published now, targeting mainly middle- and upper-middle class women. Since radio is a medium that reaches out to most people, especially those in the countryside, a women's radio program with special reports and discussions was started two years ago for those who are unable or who cannot afford to read.
As executive producer with the radio station, Arivia bought herself a yuppie blazer and went from office to office, trying to sell her program on reproductive rights and maternal mortality. None, at first, wanted to touch these topics; they were interested in ones about how to look 20 at the age of 40.
One station finally agreed to air the program at a fee of Rp 1.5 million for every two stories, each 20 minutes in length.
Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan paid for about a year and then ran out of money. But, by then the radio station had realized how popular the series was. Since then professionals have helped Radio Jurnal Perempuan to make the broadcasts more lively and entertaining, and today it is aired on 106 stations.
It was difficult to get women from the countryside to speak about themselves at the beginning. When asked questions, the women would giggle and point to their husband to answer on their behalf. But the reporters are in the habit of coaxing them gently after staying in the huts overnight, sharing meals and jokes and spending time familiarizing the women with the microphone.
"Eventually when we listen to the interviews in the studio we are so impressed with the strength and power of the answers of these unworldly women," says Arivia.
The mother of two, whose six-year-old daughter takes taekwondo and soccer lessons and three-year-old son dancing and cooking, laughs heartily as she counts the numerous programs full of sex and violence that are already aired on television.
But she is not disappointed. Over the years she has seen so many wonderful changes take place that she is convinced life is worth it if one looks ahead, especially for women in the country.