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)