Feminism
Sexual violence, workplace discrimination dominate Indonesian IWD rallies
Commemorating International Women’s Day, activists and workers took to the streets across Indonesia on March 8 to demand equality and an end of sexual violence against women. Sexual harassment in the workplace and discriminatory laws were also a major theme at many rallies.
Cambodian-Cuban solidarity for IWD
The Cuban embassy in Cambodia marked International Women’s Day with a gathering that also focused on the Cuban Five, the anti-terrorist fighters unjustly imprisoned in the United States.
Indonesian feminists: "Don't blame the victim!"
Around 100 women and men took part in a rally, Miniskirt Protest — Women against Rape, at the Bundaran Hotel Indonesia in Thamrin, Jakarta, on Sunday, September 18. Dozens of women, including several activists from Perempuan Mahardhika (Free Women), wore miniskirts, as a statement that rape has nothing to do with the way women dress.
Jakarta protest over rape statements: don't blame the victim!
On Sunday, September 18, around 100 women staged a lightning protest in Jakarta’s main thoroughfare, Jalan Thamrin, to protest statements by Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo in response to rapes that have taken place in public transport. He said: “Imagine if someone on board a mikrolet (minivan) sits wearing a mini-skirt, you would get a bit turned on”. Women, he said, “must adjust to their surrounding environment so that they don’t provoke people to commit unwanted acts”.
Indonesian women struggle against poverty, discrimination and exploitation
International Women’s Day is still much less known among Indonesian women than May Day is among Indonesian workers. This is not surprising because the struggle for the liberation of women developed only several years after reformasi - the movement that toppled the Suharto dictatorship in 1998. Then there was a mushrooming of different kinds of women’s organisations, communities, non-government organisations (NGOs), research institutions and legal aid that openly advocated women’s social and political rights.
No woman is free until all women are free
[This article is based on a speech delivered to the International Women’s Day protest in Brisbane Square held on March 5. The rally of around 100 people marked the 100th year of IWD.]
We are protesting today to mark International Women’s Day. Today we speak out and resist the attempts to coopt and corporatise this day of struggle and the attempts to hide and subvert the history of the women’s liberation movement.
Fighting for women's rights in Indonesia
The story of women in Indonesia is inseparable from the development of the Indonesian nation itself. Indonesia was swept up in the global wave of anti-colonial national liberation movements in the mid-20th century, declaring its independence in 1945 after almost 350 years of Dutch colonial rule. The key leader of Indonesia’s national liberation struggle, Sukarno, went on to became the country’s first president.
Indonesia: 100 years of women's struggle for liberation
Women are not just housewives. They are not second-class citizens. History shows that in the beginning, the world progressed because humanity (men and women) succeeded in managing nature by creating, using and modernising the tools of labour, resulting in abundant production (surplus). This was done in a way that was equitable — there were none that had more than others; there was no domination by one gender over the other.
