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.