Women's affairs office protested

Women's affairs office protested

REMBANG, Central Java (JP): Hundreds of female activists
staged a rare demonstration near the grave of Indonesia's
emancipation pioneer R.A. Kartini, accusing the government of
doing little to lift women's dignity.

Members of the demonstration, organized by activists from
Yogyakarta, Central Java, demanded that the ministry of women's
roles be dissolved for having failed to defend Indonesian women's
interests.

The protesters read poems, chanted slogans and held a mass
prayer for heroine Kartini, the daughter of a Rembang regent who
struggled for the equal rights of men and women.

The protest was held in conjunction with Kartini Day, which
falls on April 21.

Under the heavy presence of security officers, they also
demanded that the government dissolve women's organizations like
Dharma Wanita (the Association of Civil Servants' Wives), Dharma
Pertiwi (association of military officers' wives) and Family
Welfare Movement (PKK) for the same reasons.

Spokesperson for the demonstrators Ayu Lestari said that the
State Minister of Women's Role Mien Sugandhi has done next to
nothing to defend women and their concerns.

She said that when an Indonesian maid, Wardiyati, suspiciously
died in Singapore recently, Mien "washed her hands of it."

"The minister of women's roles and the minister of manpower
each insisted that the incident was not their cup of tea," she
said. "They turned it into a blaming game."

The government, she said, has never genuinely raised the
substance of Kartini's concerns, such as how to defend the rights
of female workers and farmers as well as issues concerning child
prostitution and migrants.

"Contests for women like flower arranging, cooking and beauty
contests...are sheer exploitation of women," she said. (har/02)