For Raden Ajeng Kartini, a Javanese noblewoman who lived in the 19th century, being betrothed to enter a polygamous marriage with a wealthy aristocrat, like most women of her rank at that time, was a dreadful fate.

As a form of resistance, she wrote letters to her Dutch friends to express her views on colonialism, Javanese culture and women’s emancipation. More than a century later, her modern ideas about women, education and gender equality have become part of  world heritage.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has registered hundreds of her handwritten letters in the Memory of the World, a global documentary archive of exceptional significance kept for future generations.  

Remembering Kartini, who was born today, is remembering the grit of a woman who was ahead of her time. Through her limitations and restrictions caused by traditional customs, she worked her way to bring her ideals to life, although she never had the chance to experience them.

Living years in seclusion waiting for her arranged marriage, she was powerless, and writing was her only vocation. What she had was only her European education that she had received at local schools before the seclusion and some friends that she had gained along the way.

Kartini, who died at 25 after giving birth to her first child, might never have thought that her ideas would have made it to the world.

The collections of her letters, preserved in the Leiden University Libraries, the National Archives of the Hague and the National Archives of Indonesia, are proof that great ideas, no matter how secluded and hidden, may eventually see the light of day. And what she had envisioned in her letters, the longing for freedom and independence to determine her own fate as a woman, has come true for most Indonesian women today.  

Her spirit of feminism, which had led to the establishment of schools for young women called Kartini schools, has also inspired the women’s movement in this country.

Following her footsteps, women’s organizations had emerged years before the country’s proclamation of Independence in 1945. On Dec. 22, 1928, the first Indonesian Women’s Congress was held in Yogyakarta. The gathering was held not long after a youth congress that had resulted in the Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge) in which youth organizations of all backgrounds pledged to acknowledge one motherland, one nation and one language: Indonesia.

The main goal of the women’s organizations at the congress was to get all young girls educated, just as Kartini had fought for throughout her life. The gathering, which was reportedly attended by 1,000 people, also pushed for an end to child marriage and for welfare schemes for widows and children.

Most of the causes are still fought for until today as some battles for women’s emancipation were lost. Child marriage and polygamy are still rampant while violence against women is still frequent.

Over the past four years, the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has recorded hundreds of cases of femicide, murders of women because of their gender, with a total of 290 cases last year.   

With the global rise of conservatism, the road will not be easier for women. The United States, under President Donald Trump, has led a setback in women’s reproductive rights by restricting abortion and access to contraception. With the shutdown of the US international development agency USAID, programs to support women’s rights and gender equality across the world have been terminated.  

In Indonesia, we have seen more women leaders in politics and government, which may oppose the global trend. But given the strong conservative culture, having more women leaders in all walks of life may not be enough.

It is also imperative for women leaders to have a revolutionary mind, like Kartini. Those who do not only think about change but strive in all ways that they can to advance progress in society, especially for the better welfare of women.