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International Women’s Day organizers: Beyond rhetoric
Reports of harassment during the IWD rally circulated on print and social media platforms right after the rally. One of The Jakarta Post’s reports on the rally focused on the harassments during the rally and the fallout from these circulating complaints.
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Women take part in an International Women's Day march in Central Jakarta on Sunday. (JP/Riand Alfiandy)
T
he organizers of the 2020 International Women’s Day (IWD) rally ought to be featured as among the most resilient movers and shakers of Indonesian modern political history. Very few rally organizers in Jakarta ever managed to demonstrate a concerted peaceful action of a diverse group of people on the street and responsiveness to participants’ post-rally complaints. GERAK Perempuan (Women’s Movement against Violence Alliance) is not the average rally organizer and continues the energy of large protests by women in earlier years.
However, reports of harassment during the IWD rally circulated on print and social media platforms right after the rally. One of The Jakarta Post’s reports on the rally focused on the harassments during the rally and the fallout from these circulating complaints.
Some women were indeed verbally and sexually harassed during the March 8 rally. These incidences amplify a core problem — the truth and significance reflected in the campaigns and banners about how and why Indonesian women today still have to fight hard against systematic harassment, degradation and rape.
Unfortunately, the report’s overemphasis on the cases of harassment which women participants experienced in a single rally on a day of commemorating women’s achievements is a narrative that typically perpetuates the systemic challenges which women and other minority groups in Indonesia are facing. Despite the surfacing issue of the rally’s failure to be a safe space for women, the public deserves to be informed that the rally organizers or GERAK Perempuan members are still dedicating priceless labor to be taken seriously.
They have done so through marking IWD in meaningful, inclusive, and responsible ways. Many of the organizers are working tirelessly to respond to survivors’ reports via online platforms. The above report’s mention of Dhyta Caturani’s post on Instagram is one example.
GERAK Perempuan comprises over 60 women’s organizations and their allies. As a close observer of the coalition and active participant of the rally, I contend that GERAK Perempuan has influenced the course of the Indonesian social movements’ history in at least three important ways.
First, GERAK Perempuan has managed to include and consolidate highly diverse political aspirations into one coherent movement. The task of uniting differences is not an easy one. Members’ political aspirations vary by the ideological and programmatic concerns of their affiliated organization because the coalition includes students, workers, academics and community organizers.
