Women need more education

PURWOKERTO, Central Java: Only one out of every 100 women living in rural areas was a university graduate, while half of them had not even finished elementary school, First Lady Sinta Nuriyah Wahid said in a written address to a seminar on gender here on Tuesday.

Sinta Nuriyah said in her address read by Rina Hastuti, a lecturer at Jendral Soedirman University, that only seven out of every 100 women in major urban centers had university diplomas, while 27 of them had not finished elementary school.

She further said that 38 out of every 100 men in rural areas failed to complete elementary school and only one of them possessed a university diploma. "Meanwhile, only 19 out of every 100 men in big cities failed to finish elementary school, while seven had completed university."

She said that gender discrimination occurred at the elementary school level, citing as an example the pictures appearing in schoolbooks. "There are pictures of mothers and their daughters working in the kitchen, while fathers are always shown working in the office."

Sinta Nuriyah abruptly canceled her trip to Purwokerto for unknown reasons. But many speculated that she was trying to avoid an anti-Abdurrahman Wahid demonstration that was awaiting her there.(45)