On Sunday, April 21st, millions of women and girls across Indonesia celebrated. Hari Kartini (Kartini Day), a day commemorating the birth of Raden Ajeng Kartini, a 19th century Javanese aristocrat. She was named Indonesia’s first female hero by Indonesia’s first president Sukarno in 1964, and this year marks the 60th anniversary of the holiday.
For more than a century, her legacy has been greeted with a variety of interpretations and images. Within Indonesia’s long history of colonialism, independence movements, authoritarian regimes, and globalization, Kartini’s story is tactically aligned with the narratives of various groups and political leaders, including former president and military man Suharto himself. It has been appropriated.
While some tout Kartini as Indonesia’s first feminist and women’s rights activist, others domesticate her image as representing traditional gender roles related to motherhood and femininity.
In the 19th century and during Kartini’s lifetime, notions of masculinity in traditional Javanese society, which had great influence throughout the Indonesian archipelago, did not subscribe to Western ideals of physical fitness. Rather, high spiritual ability was seen as a symbol of idealized masculinity, an immaterial authority that could hold power over others without the use of physical force or money.Everything related to non-spiritual realms was considered Casal (Rough) And the responsibility of women. This meant that women were in charge of the “purse strings”, or household spending, as money was considered a “crude” and worldly thing.
The Indonesian state was tasked with reinforcing the ideal image of women as apolitical, powerless, and chaste.
Comparing to the Western idea that women are “too emotional” or “irrational,” Javanese women are different from men; Akal overcome them (determination) nafs (Passion) Therefore, it was not possible to achieve spiritual abilities. Taking on the “broad” responsibilities of the household meant that Javanese markets were dominated by women traders. Issues related to money and trade were seen to corrupt humans and distract them from their spiritual abilities. Men were considered incompetent in terms of financial management and were expected to pass all their income on to their wives. He only receives a small amount of “pocket money” to buy snacks and cigarettes.
Despite women’s control over family and domestic matters, dominant gender ideologies and customs continued to restrict them.Includes oppressive traditions Pingitan (isolation of women after menarche until marriage), and the practice of forcing women into polygamy. In Indonesian historical literature, Kartini is remembered as the first critical voice for women’s freedom. Kartini, the second daughter of a Javanese nobleman and a Dutch colonial official, protested this practice. Pingitan, women’s lack of autonomy in choosing a marriage partner and the practice of polygamy. She also advocated the importance of education for women and girls.
Over the years, Kartini corresponded with several contacts in the Netherlands. Her letters detailed the constraints to which women of her class were subjected and her longing for greater freedom for women. The cruel irony of her story is her death. Just as she was given the opportunity to receive further education in the Netherlands, she was married polygamously by her father. The year after her marriage, she died during childbirth. However, the loss of her young life was not in vain. Before her death in 1903, she established a girls’ school in Central Java. Her death also led to the publication of her personal letters in 1911, which continued to inspire the women’s movement throughout the 20th century and into the present.
Suharto’s New Order government, which ruled from 1968 to 1998, orchestrated a fundamental transformation of Indonesia’s political landscape, strategically using gender relations as a means of control. Women were excluded from both public and political spaces and were expected to acquire biologically deterministic roles. Kodorat (natural fate), Ibu (word referring to mother or wife). Based on traditional notions of femininity, these roles were formally defined. panka dharma wanita (Five Duties of Women). These duties were first to be a wife, then a mother, an educator and leader of her children, a guardian of morals in the home, and finally a citizen.
Kodrat Wanita (The Fate of Women) emerged during this period as an implicit code of conduct for evaluating women. Such obligations were adopted by the Indonesian state to reinforce the ideal image of women as apolitical, powerless, and chaste. Kartini’s story and legacy were quickly put to use. Under Suharto’s leadership, schools across Indonesia cemented Kartini’s image, and celebrations focused on traditional women’s activities such as cooking classes and fashion shows rather than the ideology of a national hero.
By selectively editing his image, Suharto was able to reshape the concept of women to suit the interests of state power.Created a way for Indonesia to use sex and gender ideology as a form of state control state eve church (Motherhood of the Nation) by author and feminist activist Julia Suryakusma. This strategy was a means by which the government depoliticized women and subordinated them to the domestic sphere, while at the same time controlling women as a group and restricting their individual freedom.
Scholars such as Monika Winarnita have described how political feminist activists used women’s identities in 1998. Ibu (Motherhood) was initially used to demote the role of women in society, empower women through unification, and give women a political voice. This was particularly clever because their position as mothers garnered public sympathy and camouflaged political motives. What was extremely important in adjusting this Yayasan Journal Perempuan Or YJP (Women’s Journal Foundation) held a conference to discuss how civil society, especially the women’s movement, could legitimize the overthrow of the Suharto regime after observing the increasingly authoritarian New Order regime. did. YJP activists formed suara ibu peduri or SIP (Voices of Concerned Mothers), which aims to “appeal to and mobilize women of many different ethnicities, religions and classes who can identify with this issue”. Ibu This strategy not only allowed SIP to overcome religious, ethnic, and class differences, but also created a political identity that empowered and united women.
Although there have been changes in Indonesia’s legislative and socio-cultural evolution, a chorus of voices still echoes demanding the very rights that Kartini so passionately advocated.
SIP’s first political campaign was a rally in which members took to the streets to demand that the government address the high inflation of infant formula and other domestic products caused by the Suharto dictatorship’s nepotism, corruption, and collusion. . Because street demonstrations were considered “beyond the scope of respectable women,” SIP ensured that their street rallies emphasized the gentle qualities of motherhood and tempered its radical nature. SIP blossomed as a grassroots movement that penetrated much of Indonesia. She fulfilled her role as a mother of the nation by providing food aid to poor mothers who were unable to feed their children. SIP proved that women’s empowerment is possible and can be achieved by working as a collective independent of state control.
In the 26 years since Suharto’s fall in 1998, gender rights organizations and LGBTIQ+ activists have made strides to untangle his inhumane legacy and improve the political, cultural and social lives of Indonesian women. Ta. Their work has played a vital role in achieving long-needed legal reforms, particularly in the areas of gender-based violence and marriage law.
In the early 2000s, Indonesia elected its first female president, Megawati Soekarnoputri, required a 30% gender representation in elections, and outlawed domestic violence. In 2019, women rallied on Kartini Day to raise the minimum age for women to get married in order to restore their feminist image. Organizers of the rally said they wanted to reclaim Kartini Day as “one of the most important days for women’s rights.” The 2019 Marriage Act respects this request, raising the age to 19 with parental consent and 21 without consent. Indonesia also localizes the global feminist movement, which includes: Murai Bikala (begins to speak).
Unfortunately, inequalities remain pervasive in Indonesia, despite increased debate around women’s issues and major legal reforms. Child marriage and polygamy continue to exist, as families can marry off their young daughters with the approval of religious courts and local authorities. Girls are more likely to drop out of school than boys due to family expectations and early marriage. At Kartini’s school, girls drop out before they turn 15. Women remained largely excluded from the political arena, and despite gender quotas, they never received more than 24% of seats in parliament.
Kartini’s letter has inspired many scholars, activists, journalists, and students throughout history to fight for women’s rights. Although there have been changes in Indonesia’s legislative and sociocultural evolution, the calls for the very rights that Kartini passionately advocated more than a century ago still echo.