Men, students in quandary, Acehnese women map future

Men, students in quandary, Acehnese women map future

By Debra Yatim

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): While students and a largely-male
delegation are still in a quandary on how to map out a future for
troubled Aceh, the women have already created a blueprint
outline.

After more than four days of formal and informal discussion,
almost 400 women from the 12 regencies of Aceh, participants of
the Aceh Women's Congress Duek Pakat Inong Aceh in Banda Aceh,
decided at 2 a.m. early Wednesday that women wanted a bigger
voice in political decision-making.

"We the women of Aceh demand at least a 30 percent voice in
the decision-making process for the future of our land," they
said.

This demand was made alongside 19 other motions that ranged
from a demand for equal recognition with men under Islamic law,
to a ban on economic growth based on foreign debt, to the
rehabilitation of female sex workers and to the right to act as
mediators seeking a peaceful solution to the long-standing
conflict that is ripping the province apart.

While these recommendations were surprising to at least two
political observers from Jakarta, Andi Mallarangeng and Chusnul
Mar'iyah, other observers found more surprising the fact that the
all-Acehnese women's congress met with so much resistance from
many sides.

"We had received hate mail and threatening phone calls from
the very start," said Naimah Hasan, chair of the organizing
committee, whose brainchild the congress was. "Many parties told
me to my face not to go on with our plans."

A young woman in charge of press relations received daily
crank calls threatening her very life if "the congress came up
with a recommendation against a referendum for Aceh", said
Naimah.

Meanwhile, a young student, Santi, told The Jakarta Post that
she had been followed for a whole week by a strange man, who
finally told her, "you're dead if the congress recommends a
referendum".

The whole matter of referendum -- which to many parties means
another word for secession -- did raise its head during the last
day of discussions, when the delegates were divided in two on
whether to state support for the idea, or to motion against it.

After more than seven hours of pro and contra arguments, nine
women for the idea of referendum walked out, followed by another
19 ("though most of them were the catering staff," said a male
security guard). The remaining 330 or so participants decided to
drop the issue altogether.

The local press had a heyday in the days immediately
following, making it out as if women do not have the capacity to
discuss things civilly without resorting to catfights.

"The most valuable thing to come out of the Duek Pakat Inong,"
said Acehnese historian Dr. M. Gade Ismail of the Syiah Kuala
University to the local TVRI station, "is that women are showing
us men and the students on how to solve differing points of view
in a democratic manner".

Acehnese students held a convention on the same dates as the
women to discuss the idea of a referendum for Aceh or autonomy
as proposed by the central government. Meanwhile, a delegation of
mostly men are currently holding a series of meetings to decide
on how to create an Acehnese Council of Representatives to make
decisions for the province's future.

While the men and students up to Saturday had not decided on a
date to convene to discuss details, the women have already
decided to create a Peace Forum in which mediation and
reconciliation can be discussed as part of a concrete blueprint
towards a peaceful solution in Aceh.

This is the first time in 400 years that women have demanded a
voice in public life, stated the official congress press release,
referring to the golden age of Aceh under the rule of four
queens, beginning with Queen Safiatuddin. Meanwhile, Islamic
scholar Umaimah Wahid pointed out that Acehnese women did have a
public voice until up to as late as 1912, when the Dutch finally
took their right away with the banning of Tengku Fakinah, a vocal
religious lecturer.

Whatever happens in the near future, the women of Aceh have
finally regained their voice. It will take much more than
enforced veiling of their heads to make them keep quiet now.
Since Nov. 8, 1999, enthusiastic groups of young men began making
sure that no woman on the streets could walk with her head
uncovered. Banners have been posted all over Banda Aceh reminding
women to keep themselves covered with the jilbab (Muslim
headdress).

-- The writer was a speaker in the congress.