Photos testify to societal ill of violence against women

Photos testify to societal ill of violence against women

By Lilia Syarif Naga

JAKARTA (JP): The reform movement has heightened consciousness
of people nationwide and from all walks of life about their
dignity, being and identity. The dawning of a freer atmosphere in
the country has encouraged people to express long-standing
suppressed feelings and suffering.

Women have naturally been part of the movement. The group
Kaulan Perempuan (Women's Pledge) is organizing a photo
exhibition on the theme Penghancuran yang di Empukan (Justified
Destruction) featuring photographs about violence against women.

Kaulan Perempuan is supported by a large number of
organizations, including the Association of Indonesian Women for
Justice (LBH-APIK), Coalition of Indonesian Women for Justice and
Democracy, Jurnal Perempuan, Indonesian Photojournalists, Komseni
and the Ford Foundation.

The event is organized in conjunction with the commemoration
of the ratification of the Convention on Eradication of
Discrimination against Women, the International Day of
Antiviolence against Women and the commemoration of 50 years of
the General Declaration of Human Rights.

Its noble and strong mission is collective action to seek a
community free of violence.

What might be considered a feminist event ironically displays
mostly pictures by male photographers from among the 14 whose
works are exhibited.

Since the theme concentrates on women's plight and a dark
period in Indonesian history, do not expect to see photographs
depicting conventional female beauty.

The exhibition is intended to shake public awareness. The
prolonged monetary crisis, followed by the ongoing reform
movement, has badly affected society's most vulnerable and
weakest positioned gender: women.

The show -- at Galeri Foto Jurnalistik Antara until Dec. 10 --
displays gloomy pictures of women in distress: staging
demonstrations and rallies, in jail, bereaved at the loss of
beloved family members, victims of domestic abuse, tortured and
harassed.

There are also those women struggling for noble causes in
justice, democracy or human rights.

If given just 30 minutes to observe all the pictures, a viewer
would undoubtedly obtain the clear and cold message that violence
is everywhere and commonplace today.

Aftermath

Unfortunately, most of the pictures have only been taken in
the aftermath of gruesome incidents, such as the unrest in
Cirebon, Banyuwangi, Aceh, Palembang, East Timor, Jakarta and
other cities. They are not comprehensive enough to represent
major human rights violations in Sangoledo, Nipah, Timika,
Lampung, Situbondo and Tasikmalaya.

Although the violence occurred in various parts of the
country, many pictures focus on incidents in Jakarta. Some have
been published in print media.

Playwright Ratna Sarumpaet -- winner of the 1998 Female Human
Rights Special Award from the Tokyo-based Foundation for Human
Rights in Asia -- resists as security officers arrest her for
organizing the Indonesian People's Summit in North Jakarta in
March this year.

In another picture, two officers seize Karlina Leksono, an
astronomer turned activist, as she protests the skyrocketing
prize of milk.

Tears and sad expressions are perpetualized in the pictures
recording the black page in Indonesian history. Tragically, they
stand as proof of a violent culture.

Scenes of the aftermath of Black Friday in Semanggi, Jakarta,
and a family searching for a dead loved one in a morgue.

Truly heartrending are Acehnese women's faces after the
military operation in the province. Female inmates stare out
forlornly from the Tangerang women's penitentiary.

Amalia Pulungan, coordinator of the event, said women were
indeed vulnerable to all kinds of violence, including domestic
violence, military violence and even state violence. Women are
sometimes not violated directly but by violence committed against
loved ones such as family members.

Amalia emphasized the 40 pictures do not stress photographic
art and technique, but humanistic content.

Karlina Leksono, who opened the exhibition on Dec. 5 with a
rousing oration, said: "Victims of violence are always reported
merely in statistics. Numbers cannot express the real blood
spilled, the tears shed, the pain, the demolition of soul, the
torture and atrocity and even unimaginable brutality. Numbers
cannot reveal our memory of being humiliated, cornered, uprooted
and we will bear this affliction in our whole life."

She believed that confronting the problem through the
photographs was a means of closure to heal past wounds affecting
the Indonesian people.