Women enjoy unprecedented progress, also setbacks

Women enjoy unprecedented progress, also setbacks

Ati Nurbaiti, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post

In a country where the first ever woman president stands
proud, along with a few other women within the central and local
governments, awareness has been raised of the issue of "sexual
terrorism."

The alarming term was raised on Dec. 11 by the National
Commission for Violence Against Women during a press conference
on its annual review.

Amid the global campaign against terrorism, the term brings
home the fears and realities experienced daily by many women
across the country, and not least also within their most intimate
environment, the "sanctuary" of marriage and the family.

"We're using that term to get a grip on the daily reality of
terrorism," the commission's secretary-general Kamala Chandra
Kirana said, as quoted in Kompas.

The title of their report was "Sexual terrorism haunts
Indonesian women." Kamala Chandra said the term referred to a
wide range of assaults, aimed at a woman's body and sexuality,
because they are considered incapable of retaliating. Thus
victims feel constantly intimidated and threatened, for being a
woman.

On various levels, from the home to the many battlefields
where Indonesians are at war with fellow citizens, women become
victims of crimes whose perpetrators mostly walk free. Of 3,169
cases reported across 14 areas, 40 percent of women experienced
violence and rape in their immediate environment, 32 percent in
their neighborhood and 17 percent at work. As expected, the
figure only reflects the few cases that were reported to the 35
organizations that reported to the commission.

Reports of the plight of women among the country's 1.5 million
internally displaced persons reveal that women have not only lost
their sons and husbands to needless wars, but have become victims
of sexual assault, echoing the stories of women from any other
place of conflict. Killing the enemy is never enough: One must
also sexually attack their women, a symbol of male property and
dominance.

A feeling of being under constant terror must also be what
victims of human trafficking feel. This year the unraveling of a
number of cases revealed women including minors were sold for
less than the current price of a goat, which is Rp 500,000. They
had high hopes to help their families out of poverty.

Between January and June this year the Indonesian Child
Protection Institute, for instance, reported 11 cases of
trafficking of girls in North Sumatra. Lax regulations to prevent
sexual exploitation of minors have contrasted sharply with the
bowing to pressure to close down "centers of vice" in various
areas, leaving sex workers with no income.

Ignored are long-standing arguments from experts, who urge
minimum age regulations for sex workers rather than the futile
action of closing down of prostitution centers, which will, as in
the past, crop up again as long as there is a demand for them.

Selling one's body is still the most lucrative way for many
women of poor families to survive and join the desired lifestyle
of the big city. In Batam, Riau, activists cited the high cost of
living as one reason for so many women working the nightspots, to
augment income earned in the factories. The number of cases of
HIV/AIDS in Batam alone reached 75 in October -- and campaigns
for safe sex are still progressing at a snail's pace as the issue
competes with so many other hard news stories of the political
and economic crisis.

Sexual harassment has not stopped millions of women from
seeking work abroad, undertaking great risks as protection for
them is still lacking. Their firm faith, belief in fate and sheer
drive for a better life has led them to follow in the steps of
other Indonesian women to seek mostly domestic work in the Middle
East, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, among other countries.

In July, the public here learned for the first time that these
maids actually managed to form an organization among themselves
in Hong Kong under the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers.
The pictures of some of the 80 maids protesting in a foreign land
would have been unthinkable in this country, where domestic
helpers are not recognized as workers with clear rights.

The Hong Kong maids voiced grievances about alleged
exploitation by employers, recruitment agencies and the
Indonesian government toward most of their 59,000 Indonesian
counterparts. The organizing of Indonesian maids showed that the
women involved realized that they could not wait for the
government to support them. The government lags far behind the
Philippines in its appreciation of its migrant workers, dubbed
the heroes of the Philippine' economy.

Such organizing among domestic helpers in the country has yet
to come about, and would be more shocking to employers than any
other form of reformasi. As stories of suffering of maids abroad
have led to repeated calls to stop sending maids altogether, the
alternative of higher wages and freedom of association among
maids in a bid to prevent so many working in dangerous climes
abroad, has not been raised effectively by women's groups here.

In Jakarta, an eight-year-old bylaw on domestic helpers issued
in the wake of case where a servant was tortured by her employer,
proved little known among councillors themselves.

Housemaid Jumiati in September told reporters of abuse by her
employers which landed her in hospital, while her elder colleague
died two weeks earlier from self-immolation, rather than endure
further torture.

Violence against maids, by both male and female employers, is
another silent issue here. Like violence against married women or
against children, the cases are hushed up because victims are
considered, and often become, voiceless private property.

"Many violations against maids have occurred but most of them
cannot be brought to court because the employers' families tend
to cover up such cases," said Apong Herlina of the Jakarta Legal
Aid Office.

Human rights violations continue in this country with
perpetrators hiding in impunity, with or without uniform. Rights
violations among women are considered somewhat "normal". They are
either someone's wife, someone's maid or daughter -- private
property.

On the battlefield, they are "normal" casualties caught among
men who feel they must wage a holy war against each other -- thus
it is the victor's right to treat the enemy's women however they
wish.

Women leaders themselves need to be educated on such issues.
It is common to say that women in Indonesia enjoy extraordinary
equality, now proven by the rise of Megawati Soekarnoputri and
other women in government -- including four regents of Kebumen,
Demak and Tuban all in Central Java, Majalengka in West Java and
two mayors, one in Sukabumi, West Java and the other in Tanjung
Pinang, in Riau.

Women have long known that the grueling work of recognizing
women's rights does not end with a country reaching a degree of
"democracy", neither does it come about with a woman president.
Although not many expected President Megawati Soekarnoputri to
air women's concerns, it might be useful if she asserted her
creed of nonviolence more often. That might inspire more respect
for human rights, including toward women at home and in our many
conflict areas.