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)