Tunggal Pawestri: Striving for women’s rights

JP/Tyler GniewottaChances are if there is an event where women’s rights are concerned, Tunggal Pawestri will be there.

She will be there with her big blue megaphone uttering her well thought out words into one end with inspirational slogans to make Indonesia a more equal place coming out the other.  

The soft spoken, calm and forward looking woman has been a long-time activist when it comes to gender issues, not only in the nation’s capital but throughout the country as well.

Following Fauzi Bowo’s recent comments regarding the gang rape allegedly perpetrated by three men in a minivan in Jakarta on Sept. 1, comments which many groups deemed highly insensitive, Tunggal and her team started to mobilize their troops through social media to make their discontent heard.

She suggests that although comments from the likes of Fauzi and last year’s scandal involving politician Ramli Mansur of Aceh blaming women not wearing Islamic clothing for being raped, at the very least these events create a situation of solidarity with feminists from Indonesia and around the world.

“With Twitter, Facebook, BBM and Whatsapp, I can do preparations for a protest in the evening and the next day we can have over 100 people gathering in front of the presidential palace to show our solidarity.”

She is the first to admit, however, that it isn’t always that easy. Many Indonesian women living in rural areas still suffer from a lack of available information, which, combined with many local government regulations suppressing the rights of women, makes voicing their opinions and exercising their rights a dream for the future.  

Tunggal often visits her fellow advocates in the rural areas of Indonesia, lending support and discussing the successes and struggles they face in their efforts, and speaks optimistically about the current momentum of young activists joining their cause and providing new and unique ideas to draw more attention to their passion.

Despite her many trips throughout the country, Tunggal was born and raised in Jakarta and cites her own thought-provoking household and father as a major source of inspiration for the path she has chosen.

“He encouraged me not to stay home and to go out and find something interesting outside the house, he said you can do many great things and help many people if you just get outside the house and do something.”

Having grown up reading the works of Rosa Luxemburg and Kartini, she drew inspiration from sources at home and abroad, which has now amounted to a life dedicated to helping others.

Tunggal works for an international NGO focusing on gender and development, but she maintains that her life as an activist is one that is separate from her day job.  

 “Sometimes even the word feminist cannot be said freely in Indonesia… religious leaders say we adopt everything from the West and that it is not part of Indonesian culture, sometimes they even call us lesbians,” she says, laughing.  

In the nearly 15 years Tunggal has been actively promoting women’s rights, she reflects upon the accomplishments but also looks to the struggles that lie ahead for gender issues in Indonesia.

After pausing to note that now Indonesia is on the path to requiring 30 percent of political party membership be women, she continues that there is still a long way to go for Indonesia compared to many other countries in the world.

She adds that even though local governments use gender as an issue in their campaigns to gain more votes, there is still a lack of a definite example of what is being done.

“In the 2012 budget we need to see a lot more funds allocated to women’s issues and to take steps to omit local government regulations that create barriers against women and hamper their rights… [the government] already has the power and resources to do the latter, and it doesn’t even cost much money.”

Her vision is nowhere near complete and she is determined to continue to take her demands to the streets, classrooms and seminars until that is achieved.  

“I envision equal status for women in terms of social, economic and political status; free from discrimination, marginalization and oppression; and in the future, woman will have the freedom to exercise all of their rights.”