Openness key to reducing violence
JAKARTA (JP): Openness in a family relationship and public awareness toward spousal abuse are two remaining key elements which must be underscored if the number of domestic violence cases is to decline.
Human rights activist Marzuki Darusman and sociologist Melly G. Tan told The Jakarta Post an amicable open relationship and public cooperation would encourage more women to seek legal advocacy against abuse.
Both were responding to the sharp increase in the number of reported cases of violence against women, including rape and marital rape last year.
Marzuki urged parents to promote a more open and democratic relationship with their children without forgetting respect for their elders, adding that such values could teach children, particularly boys, to respect their partners in the future.
"A mature family maintains a parent-child relationship that is free from an authoritarian principle," he said.
Marzuki also called for public action from public elements such as journalists, the neighborhood and activists to continuously disseminate information on women's rights and the legal avenues available to them.
He said public support for such rights could motivate women to report mistreatment against them.
The Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (APIK) said in their year-end report that it handled 227 legal cases regarding women, a significant increase from 111 cases in 1996.
One hundred and fifty-five of the reported cases involved family disputes, eight cases of sexual harassment and 11 cases of abuse of domestic workers.
Divorce accounted for 101 of the 155 family disputes, which also involved wife beating and marital rape.
Another report from Kalyanamitra, an organization for the protection of women's rights, showed that the number of reported rapes reached 250 last year.
Almost 15 percent of the cases were committed by the victim's father, uncle, brother or son.
Many incidents of domestic violence failed to reach court as many women still consider it taboo to report such issues or take "private" matters to court.
A report from the Mitra Perempuan women's crisis center concluded that the failure to report incidents had resulted in an increase in domestic violence.
The center handled 63 reports on violence against women last year, 52 of which were classified as domestic violence.
Sociologist Melly G. Tan of the National Institute of Sciences, said women were reluctant to report abuse as they were afraid of public slurs that they were incapable of maintaining a harmonious family, which is often considered a woman's responsibility.
"Such a responsibility should be up to the husbands and wives," she said, adding that shared responsibility must be taught to children from an earlier age.
Men in our society have little appreciation of sharing the burden and responsibility of maintaining harmony because they were not taught this when they were young, Melly said.
"Boys are brought up thinking that they should be served," she said.
"Take Idul Fitri for example. It is the girls who must help out with household chores while the boys don't. Boys are never told to sweep the house," she said. (09)