Charting Progress: A Look at Gender Equality in Indonesia Today
Days ago, Camilia Laetitia Azzahra, nicknamed Zara, broke the internet of Indonesians. Okay, who is she and what has she done to create such a buzz?
Zara is the daughter of Ridwan Kamil, a former Governor of West Java and a quite popular politician. So, naturally, being his daughter means Zara’s life would sometimes become public scrutiny and her choices would reflect on her father’s reputation. So, when she made a new life choice that could reflect badly on her parents, she posted her decision on Instagram and asked the Indonesian netizens to not criticize her parents for her own choice. Now, what did Zara actually decide to do?
She removed her hijab!
Wait… What’s the big deal about it? Well, in a conservative Muslim majority country like Indonesia such things are big news, especially for public figures and their family.
In her Instagram post on April 5th, Zara explained that her choice to remove her hijab is because she wants to find her faith in her own way, so that when and if she ever decides to take her hijab back it would be out of her desire and not anyone else. For her, a good Muslim cannot be valued only by his/her attire but by his/her soul and devotion to the Sharia i.e. the Muslim’s law or code of ethical conduct.
And how did the people react to this? As expected, with backlashes and critics. Even fellow women took to social media and flooded her Instagram with harsh comments. But the bold Zara doesn’t succumb to these voices and she even said to her followers to comment as they like and for those who are disappointed with her to feel free to unfollow.
In this occasion, the author would like to send kudos, one youth to another, and hope her the best luck in her spiritual and self-discovery journey.
For those with sharp mind, the story of Zara leaves questions in the air: How is gender equality faring in Indonesia today? What progress has been made in closing the gender gap? Has legal framework protected Indonesian women’s rights? What are the social challenges in securing women’s rights and gender equality?
Lucky for you, this article will be charting just that!
The Hijab Dilemma
Let’s first stick to the hijab dilemma.
Hateful comment is not the worst thing a woman could get for removing her hijab. In countries like Iran and Afghanistan, this decision could lead to death penalty. Thankfully, despite being the most populous Muslim country, at least until Pakistan took that title a while back according to some sources, Indonesia is no place for such extremism. However, religious and social pressures do exist.
Ifa Hanifah Misbach, a psychologist in Bandung, West Java shared how enormous the pressure to wear the hijab is. She told VICE how her family had given the pressure to wear hijabs as early as when she entered school. With her family dynamic of having hundreds of cousins, Ifa compared how some of these pressures were close to bullying to some extent. The pressure especially comes from the need to shield her family and parents from insults and taunts.
Ifa said that the demand and bully to wear hijabs could lead to body dysmorphic disorder i.e. a mental issue caused by over anxiety regarding one’s appearance that is considered faulty or less. Ifa herself has treated 37 women in Bandung to quell this depression. Two of them even attempted suicide.
Wearing the hijab is like the undisputed and unwritten law for Muslim women in Indonesia. Actually, forget Muslim women, in some cases non-Muslim women are forced to wear the hijab and guess where these incidents happen? Schools!
One prime example happened to Elianu Hia’s daughter in SMKN 2 Padang, West Sumatra in 2021. Elianu and her family are Christians, yet her daughter was forced to wear the hijab because it was the school’s rules. This controversy was so viral that the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Ministry of Religious Affairs made a joint letter to stop such incident from happening again, but the letter met resistances from local government of cities in West Sumatra and was later shot down by the Supreme Court.
So, in term of rights for women to choose what to wear, one can say that Indonesia still has a long way to go.
Abortion and Its Complexity
Now we come to the rights which has been the talk of the town these past months as the infamous Land of the Free i.e. the US is digging its own grave by resurrecting draconian abortion law (staring at you Vancouver).
How is Indonesia faring on this front?
The country’s law allows abortion only for victims of rape and in the case of medical emergency when the life of the mother is in jeopardy or fetal anomalies are detected. Any other reasons and the woman who has an abortion could face four years in jail and anyone who assists her could be jailed for five years.
Before 2023, abortion is allowed to be carried out only during the first 40 days of pregnancy. The new criminal code has expanded that duration to 14 weeks. Despite still far from the standard recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) i.e. 20–22 weeks, dr. Wika Hartanti from Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities Universitas Gadjah Mada praised this change as progress in the right direction.
Yet, this new regulation also faces some objections. According to Indonesian Society of Obstetrics & Gynecology, doing abortion at the pregnancy age of 14 weeks is dangerous. The biggest concerns for the mothers are bleeding and infection, but the association also shared the dilemma of anti-life sentiment as embryos at that age have already developed heartbeats.
This argument sums up the complexity of abortion in Indonesia. Yes, the new law seems to be good on paper, but there are tons of technicalities hurdles and social barriers that prevent women from getting control over their bodies and reproductive choice.
Let’s discuss the technicalities first. There is still no clear regulation on the legality of medical staff doing abortion. In simpler words, the doctors themselves have no idea who amongst them are allowed to do abortion. What’s worse is that this situation also applies for medical facilities. Imagine that! No one knows which hospital or clinic to go to and which doctor to meet with for one to get legal abortion. And the doctors are afraid to perform abortion despite having the expertise or license to do so for they also fear the legal consequences.
Not to mention since abortion is regulated through a criminal code, wanting an abortion means you have to go through the long bureaucracy system of law enforcement body. Or the lack of it! Take this for example, in 2021, a 12-year-old girl in East Java who was raped by a 56-year-old man was refused an abortion by investigators. Why? Because the investigators had no experience in dealing with such request.
Now we take a look at the social hurdles. Abortion is still seen in negative connotations in Indonesia. Religious norms deem it a sin and for one to perform abortion is unthinkable. Never mind abortion, getting pregnant outside marriage itself is a big taboo, no matter if the pregnant women are victims of rape. You are instantly considered impure and society looks down upon you and your family.
This stigma also leads to the lack of sexual education. No one dares to talk about sex outside marriage or anything sex-related really, even to their own children. Everyone is left to discover that part of life themselves. A survey in Bali by Indonesian Family Planning Association confirms this as it found that 36% respondents believed they would not get pregnant after having sex for the first time. This is Bali mind you, the biggest hotspot for international tourism in Indonesia, and yet this kind of ignorance prevails!
So, when Indonesian women were raped, especially children or teenagers, in many cases they shut their mouth and were clueless to the chance of pregnancy. They would then only discover their pregnancy when they had passed the legal limit of abortion. This situation was in fact the main argument for the new law to expand legal abortion from mere 40 days to 14 weeks (98 days) since so few would even know they were pregnant in those 40 days. So, what these women would do then? Going on with the pregnancy? Some would, but most would seek illegal means like herbs and doctors who are willing to perform abortion secretly.
So, I guess it’s still a long way as well for Indonesian women to have the say over their own bodies.
To Get Women in Power and Work Force
For our last peek into the struggle of Indonesian women for their rights and equality, let’s see how well women manage in carving their presence to the political and economic stages.
In politic, although men still reign supreme, there are a good portion of women in power. The top one would be Megawati Sukarnoputri, a former president herself and the chairperson of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle which has been in power for the last decade. Her daughter, Puan Maharani is the speaker of the House of Representatives.
The ruling government today is also keen on letting women into the high table. President Joko Widodo’s first cabinet in 2014 included eight women ministers. This number made up 24% of the cabinet — well above the world average at the time i.e. 17%. It’s also worth noted that Indonesia has a rule that requires political parties to have women comprising 30% of candidates on party list for multi-member electorates in all level of election.
Not fully equal yet, but Indonesia deserves credits on this one. Now, how about the economy?
For that, let’s refer to the Global Gender Gap rankings in 2023. Indonesia is placed 87th out of 146 countries with the score being 0.697. This places Indonesia in the middle of the score distribution, but considering Indonesia’s status as a Muslim majority country with strong patriarchal norms, Indonesia is doing better compared to its fellow regional Muslim countries i.e. Malaysia and Brunei. Yet, this seemingly “good” status hides the fact that Indonesia’s performance in this ranking is lowest in economic participation category.
There are several reasons contributing to the low female labor force participation in Indonesia. The usual ones are marriage and childbirth that discourage women from having jobs and inflexible workplace policies and discrimination that discourage people from hiring women. Not to mention that women still earned 20% less than men on average despite having better academic performance, according to a study in 2020.
Then again, the deadliest reason is once again social norms. A study in 2022 found that almost ¼ of Indonesian men wouldn’t support women working as they believe that women’s role is to care for the children. Such belief is still iron-clad in provinces like Aceh and West Sumatra that are widely known for still practicing more conservative form of Islam.
The Way Forward for Women
To empower women today is to empower one’s national development. Just ask McKinsey & Company that predicted Indonesia’s GDP would receive a rise of US$135 billion by 2030 if the nation was to advance its gender equality. Bringing women to the work force is after all equal to bringing more hands, creativity, and ideas to the table.
As for women’s rights in issues considered sensitive for the highly conservative society like Indonesia, the responsibility rests in everyone’s hand. More women need to dare speak up and challenge the status quo, government needs to implement better services, and the youths of today who are more open for change need to start implementing the right mindset to their everyday life. At the very least, if you don’t have the courage to be loud, you can always start with yourself.
This article couldn’t be made at a more perfect timing. We may have missed International Women’s Day on March 8th, but we are approaching Kartini Day on 21st April. For our international readers, Kartini was an Indonesian activist who advocated for women’s rights and female education during the colonial era when Indonesia was ruled by the Dutch. For her advocacy, her birthdate has been set as a special day to remember women and their rights since 1963.
So, let’s fight for women and prove Antonio Guterres wrong when he stated in his speech last year that equality for women must wait for 300 years!
Read also: There’s Just Too Much Hate, but Why?
References
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