The first women's magazine

The first women's magazine

In a feature article on the highly distinguished Indonesian woman reporter Mrs. Herawati Diah (The Jakarta Post, April 9, 1995, page 8), the author indicated that the country's first women's magazine, called Duta Kita, was established in Java, in 1942, by Mrs. Herawati Diah's mother.

At the risk of appearing parochial, I would like to point out that according to my sources of information Indonesia's first women's magazine was Soenting Melajoe (Malay Ornament), established in Padang, West Sumatra, in 1912.

The chief editor of the magazine was Mrs. Zubaidah Ratna Djuita, whose father, Datuk Sutan Maharadjo, was widely known in the later part of the 19th century as the Father of Malay Journalism. My sources further mention that the first Malay/Indonesian language newspaper in Sumatra, called Bintang Oetara, was founded also in Padang in 1855.

MASLI ARMAN

Jakarta