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em>United Nations Under-Secretary-General Michelle Bachelet says that there are some countries where women’s rights are well-protected. However, for countries where women’s rights are not yet respected, she demanded that they invest more in efforts to fight discrimination because by doing so, all countries would gradually create better and safer places for women.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post’s Deanna Ramsay, Imam Mahditama and Margareth S. Aritonang in a recent interview, Bachelet stressed that like all other UN member states, Indonesia has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and is obliged to comply with all efforts to fight discrimination against women. Below are the excerpts.

Question: Do Indonesian women face particular challenges that their peers in other parts of the world don’t?

Answer: All women around the world are generally dealing with a similar struggle, inequality, although it is driven by different reasons. Women in developed countries enjoy better conditions, but still they are dealing with issues, such as salary gaps. Meanwhile, women elsewhere across the globe, are in terrible conditions because they lack access to healthcare, education and economy.

You have cultural, traditional and religious issues. Indonesia also faces other challenges that need to be solved, such as the high maternal mortality rate. It is not easy to solve this, because of you have thousands of islands. Transportation can be a problem. Not every woman has the same problems, but every woman in the world, in some way or another, faces discriminations.

What do you think is the potential to improve women’s rights in Indonesia?

I have met fantastic Indonesian women since I’ve been here. I think there is a lot of potential because there are many women who are very bright and very capable. But you have to look at what opportunities that society has given to those women so they can play bigger roles. There are times when some women believe that they are not as capable as men.

You need to have more women in senior position in the government, companies, banks, etc., so that they become role models for young women and young girls in Indonesia.

We have seen numerous occurrences of Indonesian top officials making derogatory statements about women. How can this be changed?

We have a lot of international conventions and commitments undertaken by all governments, including Indonesia’s, that say that sexual abuses and rape are unacceptable. Governments must protect children, girls and women from being in that situation. Most importantly, there should be no impunity for the perpetrators. I don’t believe that the miniskirt is what provokes men to attack a woman because women in long skirts are also assaulted. People will start believing and behaving according to this if we don’t fight against such a stereotypical perspective.

We need to fight stereotypes. In Latin America, machismo jokes that insult women are enormous. You will also see political figures in the world make stereotypical jokes against women.

Our education minister has refused to include sex education in the school curriculum because it might promote indecency. What do you think?

I respect national sovereignty and the decisions that are made on the national level. However, teaching it [sex education] to students is about making them responsible for their lives and their sexual activities. This is to educate boys and girls so they can be responsible adolescents in the future especially when they become parents. You can close your eyes and refuse to see the reality, but then you’ll have early pregnancies and 20 percent of death in young women. Like it or not, you accept the reality and change that.