Julia Suryakusuma is an influential feminist scholar and activist, and author of among others “State Ibuism” (2011, 2021) and “Julia’s Jihad” (2013), an anthology of columns in The Jakarta Post where she has been a regular contributor since 2006.

She received her Bsc. Honours in Sociology at City University, London (1979) and her MA in the Politics of Developing Societies from the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in the Hague (1988).

In 2021 she was decorated by the Belgian King for her decades long commitment to human and women’s rights, her freedom of thinking, and her courage to speak truth to power.