Violence against women regretted

YOGYAKARTA (JP): First Lady Sinta Nuriyah Abdurrahman Wahid bemoaned on Thursday the continuing violence against women, saying that no religion condones oppression or duress against women.

Speaking at the opening of a seminar on religion and violence against women at the Century Hotel here on Thursday, Nuriyah said that religious teachings -- as most teachers have interpreted them from the various holy scriptures -- in patriarchal societies tend to benefit men.

The seminar was organized by the Center for Women's Studies of the state-run Sunan Kalijaga Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN).

Citing the 34th verse of the An-Nisa in the Koran, the First Lady said Islam recognizes men's predominance over women.

She said, however, that this a verse was, sociologically speaking, a contextual one which requires very careful and prudent interpretation.

"The 34th verse of the An-Nisa was conveyed (by Allah to the Prophet Muhammad) at a time and in a society where no single woman was responsible for making ends meet. However, nowadays, many people tend to ignore the context when interpreting the verse," she said.

She added that (Indonesian) female workers now outnumber male workers. "Therefore, there is no reason for anybody to interpret the verse in a rigid way."

A former activist, the First Lady has been demonstrating her concern over oppression against women.

On Wednesday, speaking at the launch of a book on trafficking in women and children in Jakarta, Nuriyah deplored the export of female workers.

"This is a modern form of slavery and thus must be stopped," she said. "Exporting workers has become an important source of state income, but has occasioned numerous disasters to the workers concerned."

"Using the argument of national development program imperatives, women's slavery found justification and was developed into a sophisticated new form through the export of female contract workers," Nuriyah remarked.

She said a national commitment was needed to stop exporting female workers due to the continuing violence being perpetrated against them.

There have been around two million Indonesian female contract workers sent abroad over the last five years, with the 239,000 of them who work in Saudi Arabia managing to raise around US$1.12 billion in income for the state. (44/dja)