Gender Inequality and Its Persistent Power in Indonesia

7:10 AM Unknown 0 Comments

The talk of gender equality has been storming Indonesia's media these past few days, triggered by the death of Yuyun, a junior highschool student who was gang raped and murdered by 14 teenagers. Law makers, experts, and activists appear on Tv talking about what went wrong. The public is enraged, as shown in social media and the signs they were holding on the street. The spotlight on the issue of sexual abuse and gender equality has never been brighter.

source: jpnn

Everyone—well, almost everyone—seems to be in agreement that it is a problem of inequality. Yet, we're still debating of the root cause, and that causes the opinion to branches on how we should fix it. We can't deny that our law hasn't provide justice equally, that it hasn't provide equal protection to both gender. But behind all of that there is an underlying reason: our culture, our way of thinking, and our perception of women.

The patriarchal culture is already so deep rooted in the mind of Indonesian public that it makes the talk of equality so difficult to do. We are still stuck inside the hole of conventional wisdom that dictates the inferiority of women. Yes, we have to fight for gender equality, but it is still women's job to take care of the babies. Yes, we have to educate our women, but it is still a wife's duty to obey her husband. Yes, we demand equal rights, but women still need to understand their place. All this but's make the conversation of gender equality trapped in eternal loop. When it comes to empowering women there's always a but.

And although it is easy to think this is mainly the fault of the men of the society, the women are actually holding a significant portion of the blame as well. Women—or rather, most women—still holds dear their old conservative wisdom. Too often we hear that it is not lady-like to express your feeling to the man you like, that for a woman the only important thing in life is to find the right husband, and it is not necessary for a woman to be strong, leave that part for the men; and yes, we do hear these coming from women. We are taught that there is some kind of virtue and moral value in being weak and submissive to the other gender. It is true that men are the ones who mostly benefited from this unequal ground; but it is the moms, sisters, and girlfriends—those who can actually damp the pressure—who are allowing this to happen so easily.

As much as I don't want to always bring this up to surface, how can one ignore the role of religion on this issue? After all, it is the religious who puts pressure on how women should look and behave. We can just skip the theological debate to facts: Aceh—the only province in Indonesia which reenacted Sharia Law—has a state-official regulation of women's dress and curfew only for women (Ironically, Aceh placed on top of sexual harassment cases in 2014, according to Buah Hati Foundation); The Gender Equality and Justice Bill, initially drafted in 2010, had been stuck in parliament because the Islamic party had found the idea of liberal women as Western-ish and "un-Islamic"; and it was only last month that a feminist event in Yogyakarta was assaulted by Islamic hardliners. Are we still gonna pretend that this has nothing to do with religion?

Now all these has built up creating a wall that blocks progress. For years, the feminist movement in Indonesia has been struggling to get past this wall, but in order to do that we can't pretend that the wall doesn't exist. We need to take account of all the factors of why there's some kind of resistance in the idea of gender equality and why even the women in Indonesia are so reluctant to be empowered. We need to find the courage to discuss the problem at hand and say it as it is. If not, it's only a matter of time until we see another Yuyun.

source: @komunalstensil