The quality of life for women in Aceh has greatly improved since the end of a three-decade separatist conflict and the 2004 tsunami, which ravaged the Islamic province, a study revealed Saturday.

“Women in Aceh now have better access to health and education and can become decision-makers in the family. The situation here is much better relative to other provinces,” Jean D’Cunha, director of the UN Development Fund for Women’s (UNIFEM) Regional Program

for Southeast Asia, told a seminar in Jakarta at the announcement of the results of a study on gender issues in Aceh.

The study shows that Acehnese boys and girls have similar access to formal education, health services and socio-political participation unlike before the devastating disaster, thanks to the post-tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation programs.

D’Cunha said women currently make up 28 percent of candidates vying for seats in local legislatures in the April 9 general elections in Aceh.

“I am very pleased to note that, from the 1,054 legislative candidates in Aceh, more than 300 are women. This means women in Aceh have more chance [to get elected] than do women in any other province,” she said.

The results of the study, sponsored by the UNIFEM, were published as Inong Aceh di Tanah Nusantara (Acehnese women in lands of the archipelago) and written by University of Indonesia sociologist Evelyn Suleeman.

“This book contains a lot of information about women in Aceh and it needs implementation,” Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of the Agency for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation (BRR) for Aceh and Nias, told the same forum.

The study also details cases of discrimination and abuse against Acehnese women.

“We found some surprising data. For instance, Acehnese families prefer to enroll their boys at public schools and their girls at Islamic schools or Islamic boarding schools,” Evelyn told The Jakarta Post after the seminar.

Although families assumed it was better for their daughters to attend Islamic schools, Evelyn said, problems often emerged after their girls graduated.

“Many girls failed to get jobs because companies or offices prefer to have employees who graduated from state schools,” she told the Post.

Other problems confronting Acehnese women include the fact that many consider domestic violence to be a “normal” practice.

“This is really unacceptable, but it is the reality I found doing the research,” Evelyn who researched the study over two months said.

Raihan Putry, head of the women’s empowerment and child protection agency in  the Aceh administration, said Acehnese women also faced problems with the patriarchic culture, as do women in other locales across Indonesia.

“UNIFEM has funded Aceh’s programs to promote gender equality throughout Aceh regencies,”

she said.

Concepts of equality and access are not so controversial but other words common elsewhere in the country provoke contention here. Some people in the province, especially Muslim clerics, oppose the use of the word “gender” to cite one example.

“We have to change the term “gender” and use another term to avoid conflicts among clerics,” Raihan said.

Raihan said further Islamic law, sharia,  could turn into a problem if it was implemented

“improperly”.

“There is nothing wrong with the sharia laws. The problem is people still have different perceptions on this matter,” Raihan said, adding that her agency is trying to resolve the problems. (naf)

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