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Jakarta Post

Don’t laugh, don’t rape

What can we do to stop sexual violence? What contribution can we make? Well, according to activist Wulan Danoekoesoemo, a genuine concern is enough

Willy Wilson (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, December 21, 2011

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Don’t laugh, don’t rape

W

hat can we do to stop sexual violence? What contribution can we make?

Well, according to activist Wulan Danoekoesoemo, a genuine concern is enough. Such concern sends a clear message that the public doesn’t tolerate rape and that rape is no laughing matter.   

“The fact that we live in a society that is able to joke about rape baffles me. Such ignorance and insensitivity in our society prompted some friends and I to start a support group for rape survivors called ‘Lentera Indonesia’,” she said in a discussion.  

The discussion, organized in conjunction with the launch of the 71st Women’s Journal entitled “Rape and Power”, heard heart wrenching facts about sexual violence in our society.

Lentera Indonesia provides a platform for rape victims to share their stories and experiences without having to reveal their identities, a method also employed by Alcoholics Anonymous.

The organization recently slammed TV presenter Olga Syahputra for his distasteful joke about a rape and murder victim on national television recently, and subsequently lodged a complaint to the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI).

According to a National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) report, there were 400,939 rape cases in 2011, 70,115 of which were committed by close family members such as husbands, fathers, brothers and other relatives. The same report also revealed 22,285 rape cases occurred in public spaces.

 “Can you imagine what it feels like to be a rape victim and to have people joke about it?” said Wulan.

Although a self-confessed greenhorn as an activist, Wulan knows all too well the pain and the shame rape victims have to endure, since launching Lentera Indonesia.

“More often than not, victims are reluctant to acknowledge the fact that they have been raped. The most common excuse is that the attackers actually ‘love’ them. Breaking this kind of silence, I think, is one of the most fundamental issues in ending sexual violence,” she said.

Offering a similar opinion is Kristi Poerwandari, head of gender studies at the University of Indonesia’s postgraduate program. Kristi, who organizes a monthly support group for unmarried pregnant women, said that rape victims often kept silent because many attackers were actually their family members, relatives or friends.

“I reckon this is the reason why many rape victims are reluctant to admit the painful experience they have gone through,” said Kristi.     

But that’s not the only factor, as Kristi also noted that neither the society nor the legal system fully defended rape victims.

“The society and the legal system alike still view rape cases as a matter of sexual relationships, which is deemed private and taboo. The truth is raping is about stealing someone else’s dignity and freedom,” she argued.

To make her point clear, Kristi spoke of a 13-year-old girl who was raped by her step father. She was pregnant and tried her best to hide it from everyone, especially her mother. Entering the seventh month of pregnancy, she couldn’t hide it anymore.

“Together with her mother, this young girl went to the police station to report the rape case, only to be told by the officer that whole process would be quite pricey. This, to me, says that our legal system isn’t taking rape cases seriously. The officer’s job is not to quote the legal fee,” she said, rather pointedly.

Discussing rape issues, which unfortunately are still imbued with sexual connotations, in the public discourse is rather tricky, said Bagus Takwin, a psychology lecturer at University of Indonesia.  

“The reason being our society always tries to hold onto its ideals,” he said, adding that many people aren’t willing to hear about rape as they consider anything to do with sex a taboo subject. As such, Bagus observed, the society often placed the blame on the rape victim.

“Her clothes are too skimpy. Her behavior is inviting. The victims wanted it. These are the common arguments used by the attacker to avoid the law,” he said.  

Such arguments are baseless, said gender and Islamic expert and lecturer at Muhammadyah University Surakarta, Dewi Candraningrum.

“I happen to know that in Solo, there are a lot of rape victims who wear headscarfs and Muslim clothes on a daily basis. So I don’t buy the argument that says blame those rape victims for dressing up like Julia Perez or Dewi Persik. It’s nonsense,” she said.  

Where the law is concerned, there’s not much protection offered to rape victims either, said legal anthropology expert Sulistiyowati Irianto.

“The clauses that concern sexual violence, namely raping, have been adopted from France and the Netherlands since the colonial days. But while the law in France and the Netherlands has been revised according to a human rights framework, we still hold onto the irrelevant, colonial law,” she said.

She added that when it came to sexual violence, the lack of innovation in our law system meant that we, as a society, have played a part in letting these sexual attackers go free in our neighborhoods. What’s really unfortunate, she added, is the fact that our society and legal system view rape with a stronger sexual connotation than that of crime.

And until we are ready to talk about rape openly, the number of sexual violence cases in and outside the house are not going to decrease.

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