This movement reminds us of the latest comment of an Islamic leader group regarding the bill on sexual violence eradication. In a viral video, he mentioned it was a wife’s duty to serve her husband sexually. “If she does not want to have sex, then just stay still, lay down, it would not hurt,” he said.

How significant is feminism in Indonesia?

Since the colonial era, several women national heroes had struggled across different issues, the most well-known being Kartini, who wrote extensively about education inequality between men and women in the colonial Javanese culture.

The feminist movement began to enter political discourse in the era of Indonesian first president Sukarno, mainly through the Indonesian Women Movement (Gerwani), which was associated with the communist movement. The ban on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and other left-leaning groups under Soeharto marginalized the feminist discourse. It emerged again in the 1980s and following the reform era, feminists found themselves competing with all previously suppressed groups. Expressions of sexual minorities and those in the women’s movement sometimes clashed with traditionalists and those advocating religious values.

In contemporary Indonesia, it is important to find connections between multiple issues and discourse. The rise of the above “Indonesia without feminism” campaign may be partially because its supporters do not see the significance of feminism in the context of their everyday lives, particularly from the religious perspective. Breaking this barrier of communication seems to be the challenge, therefore, there are some important points to note.

First, the definition of feminism should be translated into local women’s everyday lives. This creates another question: how do the anti-feminist movement supporters define feminism, as they have concluded that “Indonesia does not need feminism”? Their Instagram campaign suggests they define the feminism as an anti-thesis of religious, and particularly Islamic, values. Thus, it is important to explain feminism through the religious lens.

A great example in defining and practicing feminism through a religious perspective is the Aisyiyah movement. Founded in 1917 by Muhammadiyah’s female leader Siti Walidah, the founder’s wife better known as Nyai Ahmad Dahlan, Aisyiyah had successfully integrated Islamic values with a perspective to empower women, though few might recognize her as a feminist. Aisyiyah addressed education, health and social services by creating higher education institutions, kindergartens, clinics and nursing homes.

Meanwhile Papuan women, at least in the capital Jayapura, have successfully demanded the establishment of a women’s market (pasar mama-mama) to improve their wellbeing and that of their families. Another current example is the growing trend of online transportation female drivers. They are not new; if we followed conservative understanding of women’s roles perhaps we may have never seen women driving to meet their families’ needs.

There is also the movement of female farmers in Kendeng, Central Java, who are against the establishment of the cement factory near their village. Out of survival needs they focus their campaigning across issues of environment and big capital, reiterating how environmental damage would further hurt their communities and families. Women in the Thursday weekly rallies in several towns, called the Kamisan, also reflect the interconnectedness of human rights violations and political awareness of mothers speaking up following the kidnapping or killing of their children under the New Order. These forms of interconnected movements and understanding of feminism must be made widely available. In Islamic history itself several women held influential including the Prophet’s wife Khadijah, who challenged the belief that a woman’s role must be limited to her house. Yet, how can these examples and explanations be disseminated to regain public awareness?

Current movements need to be creative in bringing a feminist prespective to the grassroots level. Telling a bedtime story to children about women empowerment and leadership with religious values could be the easiest way. The form of knowledge does not need to be serious and scientific like academic journals. Knowledge should be accessible for all anyone.

Finally, failure in bringing feminist discourse to the grassroots has, among others, resulted in this “Indonesia without feminism” campaign. Amid today’s current politics, such campaigns could be more popular, presenting a bigger challenge for the feminist movement Acknowledge barriers to communicating feminism, work through them and improve individual as well as collective consciousness through dissemination of knowledge, to increase awareness of the need to empower women, and form even stronger feminist solidarity.

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The writer is studying for his Masters in Development Studies at Lund University, Sweden, and is a development researcher.

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