Up and running: A woman creates embroidery inside a house of the late women pioneer Rohana Kudus in Koto Gadang, near Bukittinggi in West Sumatra. Rohana opened up a school which helped women to improve their skills and become financially independent. JP/Syofiardi Bachyul Jb.
As the nation celebrates the birth of national heroine RA Kartini every April 21, three West Sumatran women pioneers — Rohana Kudus, Rahmah El Yunusiyyah and Rasuna Said — are still waiting for the proper recognition they deserve in the making of modern Indonesia.
The yellow house with brownish windows and doors looks just like any other house in Koto Gadang, located some 3 kilometers from popular tourist site Ngarai Sianok in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra.
No signboard informs that it was once the house of Rohana Kudus, the country’s first female journalist and pioneer of the national women’s movement.
“It has crossed our minds to put a signboard out front,” Zulhadi told The Jakarta Post. “But usually visitors looking for Rohana’s house are simply directed here by residents.”
The 47-year-old Zulhadi is the grandson of Ratna, Rohana’s young sister, and lives in the house with his wife, Yusni Salmawati.
Inside, Yusni shows fabrics colorfully embroidered by Rohana as well as a bell she used at Keradjinan Amai Setia School, which she established in Koto Gadang.
Born on Dec. 20, 1884, Rohana never attended formal school, but she could read and write, including in Arabic and Dutch, by the age of eight. Her father, Mohammad Rasjad Maharadja Sutan, who worked for the Dutch government, introduced her to these skills and provided her with books and magazines, while a neighbor polished her reading and writing skills even more.
Even at that young age, Rohana taught several children in her neighborhood, Simpang Tonang Talu in Pasaman regency, to read. Her father supported them with school supplies and her mother regularly assisted her
Growing up, she consistently worked for women’s causes and was fully aware of the need to use effective media to get her message across.
On Feb. 11, 1911, she set up Keradjinan Amai Setia School. Classes first started in her house, with the rooms being transformed into classrooms. She also invited women in Koto Gadang to join the school.
The Dutch ruler then granted her a permit to run a lottery to raise funds. The scheme, the first one an indigenous Indonesian was allowed to run, successfully raised funds to build a schoolhouse in 1915, which still exists and is in operation to this day.
Apart from providing education, the school later developed into a small embroidery business venture, believed to be a pioneer of the country’s first small- and middle-scale business scheme.
The venture ran quite well. It once ordered yarn from a French store financed through a bank loan and Rohana was invited to present her handiwork at Tentoostelling, an annual international handicrafts festival in the Netherlands.
The invitation created news waves since it was uncommon for a woman to travel, even to nearby Java and especially to the Netherlands, at that time.
Rohana did not go but the school’s handiwork was sent and exhibited at the festival, gaining media attention in the Netherlands, referring to her as Sumatra’s education pioneer.
Rohana was also considered the country’s first female journalist for her role in publishing Sunting Melayu, the first newsletter for women, the first edition of which hit newsstands on July 10, 1912.
The weekly newsletter, which stayed in the business for nine years, was published by leading newspaper Utusan Melayu at the suggestion of Rohana.
She became the newsletter’s chief editor along with Ratna Djoewita, daughter of Oetoesan Malajoe’s chief editor. Ratna was based in Padang while Rohana stayed in Koto Gadang, and routinely sent her articles and coverage of the Bukittinggi area.
The newsletter closed up shop after Rohana moved to Medan in North Sumatra, where she wrote for and led Perempuan Bergerak newspaper. She later moved to West Sumatra’s capital, Padang, where she joined the editorial staff of the Radio daily.
Through her writing, she enlightened women with stories on women’s progress in Europe, pushing Minang women to strive for equality with men through education, expand their reading and become economically independent by improving their skills.
The stepsister of national hero Sutan Sjahrir also encouraged men to support education for their daughters to give them the opportunity to become equal with men.
In her fight, Rohana, who died in Jakarta on Aug. 17, 1972, faced many challenges, from being accused of misleading women to embezzling the lottery money, the case of which later went to court but was not proven.
Another women pioneer, Rahmah El-Yunusiyyah, introduced Islamic education for women in the country.
The late Rahmah, who was born on Dec. 29, 1900, came from a family of progressive Islamic leaders.
Her brother, Zainuddin Labay El Yanusi (1890-1924), was a young Islamic leader and education figure, who set up Diniyah School in Padangpanjang. She started her education there before furthering her education with the help of several well-known religious leaders in the city.
Inspired by her brother and a desire to empower women, she set up all-girls’ school, Diniyah Puteri, in Padangpanjang in 1923.
The school is running to this day and has become the country’s leading Islamic education institution for women. The school, with its big building, now offers education from kindergarten to university levels on Jl. Ahmad Hamid Hakim in Padangpanjang.
Rahmah’s achievements reportedly reached as far as Al-Azhar University in Cairo, which awarded her a Syaikhah degree, similar to an honorary doctorate degree, back in 1957.
She was also reportedly the first woman to be bestowed such an honor and was said to have inspire the university to open up to female students in its special Kuliyyatul Banat faculty for women.
Rahmah was not only an educator but also actively fought for independence. She actively supported the Youth Congress, which led to the Youth Pledge in 1928 and led a movement to oppose Dutch regulations, including those regulating Islamic schools.
In her own way, Rahmah fought for women’s empowerment, especially in education, but still within basic Islamic teachings, until the day she died on Feb. 26, 1969 in Padangpanjang.
Unlike Rohana and Rahmah, who both focused their fight on education, Rasuna Said rose to fame as a politician — through her powerful speeches and writing to nurture the spirit of independence.
The youngest of the three pioneers, who was born on Sept. 14, 1910, once studied at Dinniyah Putri, which was led by Rahmah.
However, the woman, whose character was said to be influenced by reading Sunting Melayu led by Rohana, chose not to become an educator but rather a politician and joined a political party.
In her time, Rasuna was known as a tough and courageous orator in voicing her opposition of the Dutch administration, earning her the nickname of Singa Betina (the Lioness).
After delivering an anti-colonialism speech against the Dutch in 1932, she was arrested and banished to Semarang, Central Java, for 13 months.
But she continued spreading her political message through her writing, mainly through Menara Poetri magazine, which she led in Medan. The magazine was popular for its brave slogan, “Ini dadaku, mana dadamu”, which literally translates as “this is my chest, where’s yours”.
Rasuna’s political activities continued under Japanese occupation, and after the country gained independence, she became active in parliament. She passed away at the age of 55 years on Nov. 22, 1965 in Jakarta.
In her way, Rasuna was a pioneer of women’s empowerment in the political arena, believing that women should work side by side men in politics, not only through education and skill improvement.
She also openly rejected discrimination against women and declined to take her husband’s name, preferring to use her father’s name instead. She also opposed polygamy and divorce. This was at a time when, according to a survey, 14 out of 100 women were divorcees and 10 out of 100 men practiced polygamy.
She even declared once that if she had to choose between getting divorced and accepting a polygamous marriage, she would choose divorce, and she campaigned for women to improve their education to better their fate in the fight against polygamy.
Ironically, of the three West Sumatran women pioneers, only Rasuna Said was named a national heroine back in 1974, and one of Jakarta’s main thoroughfares in Kuningan, South Jakarta, was named after her.
To this day, people know the road’s name better than the heroine.
Beyond that, there is no other indication of her life. Rasuna’s birthplace in Jorong Kubu Baru near Maninjau Lake in Agam regency was long ago transformed into a mosque. No trace of her has been left for people to study.
Rohana was only given the Indonesia Press Pioneer Award by the Indonesia Journalists Association. Rahmah was posthumously awarded the Bintang Mahaputra medal by the government in 1999, while the 1969 proposal to name her a national heroine was never heard of again.
