My mission is to spread gender equality: Khofifah
My mission is to spread gender equality: Khofifah
JAKARTA (JP): Khofifah Indar Parawansa is decidedly a new
breed as a state minister in charge of women's affairs. Unlike
most of her predecessors, she brings well-defined concepts into
an office that was once created as mere lipstick to appease
Indonesian women.
She has taken on issues, for instance, that have long been
considered sensitive, such as the law on marriage that bans civil
servants from taking a second wife.
She speaks out about the importance of condoms to prevent the
spread of AIDS. She speaks out about violence against women and
inequality of access to economic opportunities.
A number of women activists have called her a breath of fresh
air in the non-portfolio office. She still admits, however, that
she would not be able to do anything without the cooperation of
relevant ministries, even to push for a revision of the
elementary school textbooks which she describes as
discriminatory.
"The authority (to undertake revision) remains with the
Ministry of Education, but I do have other missions, including
the popularization of the concept of gender equality and
fairness," she told The Jakarta Post.
She said her concern about the textbooks was sparked by
research conducted by scholars at the Jakarta State University.
Several years earlier, the women's organization Kalyanamitra had
also described what it saw as gender bias in elementary school
textbooks.
Former elementary school students will easily recall pictures
of father reading the newspaper and mother busy at some domestic
task, and the reading drills depicting similar scenes.
Khofifah added, "I really would like to invite the textbook
publishers -- maybe they could give inputs to the writers so they
would not be gender-blind."
Aware of her ministry's limits, she said her proposal would
not even touch the question of curriculum.
What is needed, she said, is a different approach in
presenting material to students.
For instance, girls and women should not be always portrayed
confined to the kitchen. (Herry Nurdi, Santi W.E. Soekanto)