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Speaking up paves way to women leadership
Women from rural areas, who are cited by some as passive and quiet, have started to speak their mind and even changed policies in their villages after undergoing training at the Legal Aid Foundation of Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH APIK).
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Gender equality illustration. (Shutterstock/File)
S
iti Aisah and Olvialine Takayeitouw were among the women who had never spoken up, let alone addressed an audience. But the women respectively from West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and Papua came to believe they not only had the right and ability to speak up but also assist neighbors to access public services, handle domestic violence cases and sit on local forums making important decisions for their communities.
The efforts of Siti Aisah, 47, and other locals even led to a village rule in Dasan Cermen, Sandubaya in Mataram and later a gubernatorial decree on preventing child marriage in NTB, a province with a high number of child marriages.
The women attributed their self-confidence to paralegal training held by local chapters of the Legal Aid Foundation of Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH APIK). The organization launched on Tuesday its APIK Gender Justice Index, aimed at measuring gender parity in diverse categories including political power.
APIK national coordinator Nursyahbani Katjasungkana said from being passive and quiet women, “those women have changed policies even at the lower level, such as awig awig [customary rules], village regulations or pakem [religious decrees]. Speaking up on their concerns has led to policy change.”
The paralegals are at the core of efforts for social transformation, Nursyahbani said.
Some participants of the paralegal training sessions held in Sekolah Pelopor Keadilan (justice pioneer schools) have gone on to run for public office and a few have become village heads, she said.
Siti Aisah, who was active in the local health community post, said in previous years child marriage was never discussed as it was considered normal. But she accompanied a lawyer from APIK and interviewed seven women who married as children. Aisah could not hold back tears when recalling the interviews. “Our first question to them was why they married young. Their answers were the same, that their parents were poor.”
