KUHP 'must address all crimes' against women

JAKARTA (JP): Activists are calling for greater recognition of violent acts against women in the Criminal Code (KUHP) as currently most articles in the code only address general physical crimes.

Criminal justice expert and woman activist Harkristuti Harkrisnowo said on Sunday that articles in the code which specifically address crimes against women are Article 285 on rape, Article 347 on abortion without the woman's permission, Article 297 on the trading of women and Article 332 on the abduction of women.

"Unfortunately other physical abuses such as incest, marital rape and sexual harassment are not considered criminal and thus go unpunished," she told a seminar here.

She claimed that the definition of rape was also discriminative as sexual violence against a woman was not a crime if the assailant was the husband.

"That means marital rape is not a crime. Also sexual intercourse with an underaged girl is not categorized as statutory rape if the girl had consented," said Harkristuti who is also one of the deputies of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

She said our society generally rejected marital rape as it did not believe such a thing exists.

"If a husband forces his wife to have sexual intercourse, wouldn't it be rape?" she said.

"Once a man even got angry with me, saying that if wives are too tired to serve their husbands because they had been working at the office, then there should be a law forbidding women from having a career," she added.

"As if being a housewife is not tiring," she remarked while adding that the Criminal Code should also include psychological violence against women.

"Pornography, polygamy...aren't they violence? A husband giving his wife a very small amount of money for expenses is financial violence," said the member of the National Law Commission and a professor at the University of Indonesia's Law School.

According to Harkristuti many of these points are being incorporated in the new Criminal Code bill currently being drafted.

Many women in the dialog, which reflected on the role of women in the Jakarta archdiocese, also questioned the rigidness of the church over women's issue.

Activist Yustina Rostiawati noted that the church remains very much a male dominated institution.

"The church has long been dominated by men. Women for example cannot become archbishops. While we know that it is very hard to change the paradigm, we're asking the church to be more open and sensitive toward women's issues," she remarked.

There were also questions over how to deal with the issue of abusive husbands as divorce is forbidden in the Catholic church.

"Separation is allowed, but will it help solve the problem?" Yustina asked. (hdn)