'Marsinah' part of International Women's Day revelry

'Marsinah' part of International Women's Day revelry

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): Joyous sounds are expected to echo around the
world as International Women's Day dawns Monday.

Jakarta will flag off the day with a talk on the emerging role
of women in Asia by Louise Williams, author of Wives, Mistresses
and Matriarchs.

At a seminar on the wellbeing of women, the International
Community and Activities Center (ICAC) has invited participants
to discuss a variety of topics from Islam and women to hormone
replacement therapy. And all the hustle and bustle is justified.
After all there is much to celebrate after a nine-decade struggle
by women for equality, justice and peace.

The day is also spent in remembering all those women who have
made history by participating in different battles to improve
their lot within the family and society. The oldest story told of
a mother courage is perhaps that of Lysistrata who called for a
sexual strike against men in ancient Greece in order to end war.

Libraries are loaded with information about the French
revolution and Parisian women who had marched into Versailles
crying liberty, equality, fraternity and demanding women's right
to vote. It was in 1909 that the Socialist Party of America
declared the first national women's day on Feb. 28 that was
observed throughout the U.S.A. On the eve of the First World War
Russian women tried to prevent the fighting by holding anti-war
rallies but after the death of two million of their soldiers in
the 1917 war they took to the streets once again on the last
Sunday of February asking for bread and peace. According to the
Gregorian calender, it was March 8 when the Czar of Russia was
forced to abdicate and women received on that day the right to
vote. The rest, as they say is history.

With so many trophies collected in the past the international
women's movement looks back only to go forward at a time when it
is backed by four global conferences organized by the United
Nations, insisting on the equal participation of women in all
political and economic affairs.

It is repeatedly said although yet to be put into practice
that enduring solutions to society's threatening social, economic
and political problems can be found only with the full
participation and full empowerment of all the world's women.

Today provides a moment to reflect on so much that has already
been achieved and much more that remains to be done. Also to take
time off to rejoice in all acts of courage shown by ordinary
women in the 90-year old history of women's rights.

Marsinah

Ordinary women like Marsinah of Indonesia, for example.
Jakarta based author-actress Ratna Sarumpaet's play on the murder
of Marsinah is perhaps a grim but apt way of commemorating
women's day in the city.

For director Tom Schulz the discovery of the English
translation of Marsinah, A Song from the Underworld has been a
blessing. It has stirred his soul and charged his conscience. His
association with the play has been full of meanings and
coincidences. Schulz, a drama teacher, discovered the play not
here in Indonesia but was introduced to the script by a colleague
who found the English translation in a bookstore in Texas!

After reading the play a sense of responsibility was aroused
in him towards other expatriates here and towards his Indonesian
friends. He insists that he cannot pretend that he has no part to
play in what is happening in his host country. Apologizing for
the lack of humor in the play of his choice, he says that it is
so because there is little to laugh about in Indonesia today.

Besides his interest in the play is not to entertain himself
or his audience but to enlighten, if possible. The one ray of
hope he clings to is the recent renaissance here in the arts,
especially theater as this can serve many purposes. One of them
being, to quote the great Bertolt Brecht, "Not as a mirror to
reflect reality but as an axe to shape it."

Marsinah was a young factory worker who annoyed the powerful
so much for daring to speak out, for dreaming of improving her
lot that she was made to pay with her life.

When Ratna heard about the incident that occurred six years
ago she was repelled at the depth of degradation faced by the
helpless factory worker.

For Ratna the issue is not only about the strong against the
weak, about factory owners against workers but about the ultimate
humiliation of one human being at the hands of another. What
still gives goose pimples to the playwright is the apparent
feeling of utter contempt the murderers harbored for Marsinah not
only because she was a poor nobody but because she was first and
foremost a woman.

"Otherwise why rape? Why put on public display the mutilated
and murdered body instead of burying it in dignity?" questions
Ratna.

By having raped her and humiliated her, even in death it is
like saying, this is what you deserve, you big-mouthed woman.
Serves you right for talking too much. For Marsinah's only crime
remains that she insisted on speaking up.

Seventeen-year old Emma Woodhouse, who is half-Indonesian and
plays the role of Marsinah in the traveling production, is proud
to have this opportunity to be able to spread the word around.
Just as it is difficult for Ratna to disguise her pride as she
sits cross-legged on the floor of the stage discussing the play
with the youthful cast of international high schoolers.

Emma added that she is outraged at the rape. She is pained
every time she has to repeat on stage,"Where is my voice?" a line
that hangs over the entire play like a dark cloud. But the silver
lining is the thought that with the performance, Marsinah
continues to speak out even in death.

She will continue to speak out as long as injustice and
brutality stalk the world.