Openness key to reducing violence

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)