'Uproar over rape no cause for optimism'

'Uproar over rape no cause for optimism'

JAKARTA (JP): The public uproar seen over recently-reported
rape cases does not guarantee that there will be fewer rapes in
future, say two feminists.

According to criminologist Syarifah Sabarudin, the only hope
for a reduction in rape and other forms of violence against women
lies in people coming to see rape as an extreme case of unequal
relations between the two sexes.

"The implication would be that women would not be considered
as sex objects," Syarifah said on Saturday.

Advertisements would not show women as objects, nor would
women use themselves as objects, she added.

The public response to recent reports of individual and gang
rapes, she said, has been merely a rejection of moral violations
and an expression of shock over the cruel incidents.

"The reaction would not have been as strong if the victim had
been a single woman who was walking alone on the street at
night," Syarifah said.

Separately, Sita Aripurnami of the non-government organization
Kalyanamitra said that rape, particularly of a prostitute, is
considered a sanction against women challenging the notions that
women are defenseless and modest.

The most publicized recent case was that of a Bekasi woman and
her two teenage daughters, all three of whom were raped by a gang
of youths in front of their husband and father.

Public outrage over the case has been so great as to extend to
the lawyers defending the men who stand accused of the crime.
Last week, the defense lawyers were attacked by a mob during a
pre-trial hearing of a complaint filed against the police for
unlawful arrest of their clients. The lawyers subsequently
dropped the complaints against the police.

Other individual and gang rapes have also been reported in
South and Central Jakarta, West and East Java, Tangerang and
South Sulawesi, in which most of the victims have been minors.

Sita lamented certain remarks that have been made about some
of the rape victims, such as the comment that they were pretty.

"Press reports and even (Minister for Women's Affairs) Mien
Sugandhi said the rape victims in Bekasi were pretty," she said.
In making such remarks people implied that they were not
surprised that the women were raped, Sita added.

"This contradicts the fact that girls are raised under the
societal expectation that they should be beautiful," she said.

Sita criticized the hiring of prostitutes to play the roles of
the victims in the courtroom reconstruction of the Bekasi gang
rape.

"Police women could have played the roles but, apparently,
they were considered too 'holy,' to do so" she said. She added
that, according to another theory, the trauma of the re-enactment
of the crime was too great for a policewoman to bear, but that a
prostitute would not have difficulty coping with it.

Syarifah criticized the view of some experts that there is no
need to establish crisis centers for rape victims in Indonesia
because the functions of such a center can be fulfilled by the
victims' extended families.

"It is actually the extended family structure which offers
protection for the rapist, if he happens to be in the family,"
said Syarifah. (anr)