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n response to recent cases of rape and murder inside public transportation vehicles, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo advised women to pay a particular attention to what they wear.

“[Women] must adjust to their surrounding environment so that they don’t provoke people to commit unwanted acts,” Fauzi said. “Imagine if someone on board a mikrolet [minivan] sits wearing a miniskirt. You would get fidgety,” (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 16, 2011).

Despite his apology for his insensitive remarks, it raised an outcry among women activists.

The chairperson of the National Commission on Violence against Women, Yuniyanti Chuzaifah said: “His statement suggests that it is women who should be responsible [when a rape occurs]” (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 17, 2011)

A group of women activists staged a protest at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Sept. 17 in response to the Governor’s statement.

Blaming women does not only occur in rape cases. Women victims of domestic violence are also blamed for the violence they experience at home.

Crimes against women — wherever they occur — relates to gender relations.

I borrow Connell’s analysis on gender relations between the family, state and street to explain the
connection between crime and gender. Family, state and street are places where men rule. This fact, when combined with unequal gender relations, place women in subordinate positions.

Connell stated that within the family, gender relations concern the sexual division of labor: “The contemporary urban family or household is constituted by a division of labor that defines certain kinds of work as domestic, unpaid and usually women’s and other kinds as public, paid and usually men’s.”

The family situation is strengthened by the state’s intervention.

In Indonesia, Law No. 1/1974 enshrines the notion that the husband is the head of the family and the wife is responsible for domestic matters. In other words, a man’s place is in the public domain while woman’s is in the domestic space.

Within the family, crimes against women, such as domestic violence, are often said to result from a woman’s failure to perform her domestic duties, one of the reasons why women become a target of violence by their husbands.

In terms of the street, though it is not often thought of as an institution, according to Connell it is a definite social milieu with particular social relations.

“The street as a milieu thus shows the same structures of gender relations as the family and state. It has a division of labor [and] a structure of power.”

The street is often an intimidating and dangerous place for women as they are supposed to be at home, not in the street.

Weak law enforcement makes things worse. Women’s subordinate position makes them even more vulnerable as they face a great risk of being the targets of crime and sexual harassment, including rape.

Blaming women who become victims of gender-based crimes — regardless of whether they occur in private or public spaces — has been strongly adopted by the society. This leads to some victims who do not dare to report or seek help if they face these terrible situations in fear of being blamed for what happened to them.

Sadly, the state, which is supposed to guarantee protection to all citizens, often fails to understand the root of gender-based crime. Instead of providing protection, the state tends to blame women and victimize them a second time.

Strengthening law enforcement, raising gender awareness and, more importantly, upholding the respect of our fellow human beings — men and women — needs to be everybody’s concern so that we no longer need to worry about the safety and well-being of our daughters, wives, sisters and mothers.