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A long fight to end violence against women
Conservative religious groups accuse the policy of promoting and legalizing free sex as it cites lack of consent from victims as a key factor that defines sexual violence.
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What women want: Students and activists from the Antiviolence Women Movement (GERAK) participate in a rally outside the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry in Jakarta on Feb. 10 to demand deliberation of the sexual violence bill. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
A
woman wrote an open letter to Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim last month. Without disclosing her identity, the sender, who teaches at the School of Social Sciences in a state university, says she had been assaulted verbally and sexually in her workplace.
She posted the letter in response to a ministerial decree on the prevention and treatment of sexual violence in higher education that became effective on Aug. 30.
She is not, of course, the only, nor the first woman in the country who has experienced sexual harassment on a daily basis for years. Most recently a student in the East Java city of Mojokerto reportedly committed suicide after admitting on her social media account to having been raped by her police officer boyfriend, who forced her to have an abortion twice.
Andy Yentriyani of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) said the known cases of violence against women were just the tip of the iceberg. Although many have had the courage to file reports with the commission, a Komnas Perempuan survey found 80 percent of victims were reluctant or did not know where to file reports.
The education ministry’s own study last year disclosed that 77 percent of professors surveyed believed sexual violence occurred on campus, but 63 percent of them did not report the cases to campus authorities.
Unsurprisingly, the ministerial regulation has been met with staunch opposition, particularly from conservative religious groups who accuse the policy of promoting and legalizing free sex as it cites a lack of consent from victims as a key factor that defines sexual violence.
The heated debate saw academic and prize-winning novelist Okky Madasari receive threats and online abuse after she explained why consent mattered and why Indonesians who have learned religion since childhood should not fear the regulation.
