By: Fanny Syariful Alam, Regional Coordinator of SEKODI Bandung, a Fellow of IVLP U.S. Dept. of State.
Pesisir Selatan, a district in West Sumatra-Indonesia, became the center of attention when it was reported that furious people nearly stripped and threw two women into the sea. Despite their pleas for mercy, the people did not listen. On April 8, 2023, the women faced a horrific ordeal due to the people's vigilant persecution. They were accused of disrespecting Fasting Month by visiting a café at night. As a form of "cleansing" of their supposed sin, the people persecuted them in this manner. Afterward, the people covered the women's wet bodies with a curtain from the café and returned them there.
West Sumatra has many stories of women facing persecution in the name of religious values, particularly Islam. In 2021, a non-Muslim student at SMKN 2 (Public Vocational School) in Padang, the province’s capital city, sparked controversy when she was required to wear a hijab. The incident went viral after a video of the debate between her parents and the school authority was circulated. Unfortunately, currently, the situation escalates when the parents faced serious trouble due to people suggesting to boycott their air-conditioner business and sending various threats through WhatsApp. As a result, they have not earned any income from their business and are now planning to sell their house.
In December 2021, a case of sexual harassment in the name of religious values, particularly Christianity, was reported and went viral in 2022. One of the church followers was subject to sexual harassment when the church priest underwent a sanctification ritual to enable her to get a job and children. Instead of the ritual, she sensed the priest’s hand touching her body and she panicked finding that. Furthermore, lately, several minor-female students in an Islamic Boarding School in Batang, Central Java experienced sexual harassment by the school caretaker and he has undergone this since 2019. He manipulated them by informing them that in the name of religion, they would gain such a special blessing after the incident.
Women as Object
Despite the Government’s willingness to enforce the law aimed at preventing women from sexual violence, particularly through Law No. 12/2022 about Sexual Violence Crime, the reality on the ground presents some different stories, for example, the above-mentioned ones. The Law factually provides a comprehensive definition of sexual violence while the implementation remains a huge question. The Law embraces 9 types of sexual violence, which are non-physical sexual violence, physical sexual violence, forced use of contraceptions, forced sterilization, forced marriage, sexual abuse/torture, sexual exploitation, sexual slavery, and online-based sexual violence. Furthermore, this expanded definition should manage to arrest more sexual violence perpetrators more easily since every institution, for example, educational one, has been accommodated with a special task force to address any sexual violence problem. Many universities in Indonesia have adopted this system to assist their students who are victims of sexual violence. However, it is unlikely that Islamic boarding schools (maybe some of them have done so) do the same as universities, which makes it troublesome to detect sexual violence and harassment in many Islamic boarding schools and their environment.
The above-mentioned situation is aligned with women objectification which can lead to sexual violence and other forms of harassment. Addressing this, Frederickson and Roberts, through their objectification theory, underline that many women are sexually objectified and treated as an object to be valued for their use by others. It occurs when a woman's body, body parts, or sexual functions are isolated from her whole and complex being and treated as objects simply to be looked at, coveted, or touched. This phenomenon is exacerbated by the continuous operation of patriarchal systems, where sexual objectification of women remains prevalent and normalized by some men who consider themselves in a higher position and are therefore entitled to categorize women according to their beliefs. The harassment and violence against women, in this case, refer to the abuse of power relations, showing men as religious leaders and teachers with their power to convince their victims to do what they want both persuasively and forcibly.
In addition, women objectification is often associated with sexist attitudes embedded in larger belief systems associated with specific hierarchies of values. In this case, religion takes a significant part to shape gender role expectations, traditionally teaching people through stereotypical perspectives of what men and women should do properly. At the same time, sexist attitudes, or in other words, sexism, sustain due to being supported by religions, mention that women are inferior to men, similar to one type of sexism, namely hostile sexism. It thrives due to men’s thought that women are incapable of intelligence and competence, supported by a social structure constructed by men to develop social institutions. Hostile sexism additionally brings people to a belief that men’s heterosexual intimacy with women sometimes leads to huge threats of violence to women. This construction justifies the normalization of sexual violence and harassment of women and makes them sustainable.
The Expectation Goes On Still
Numerous cases of harassment and violence against women in Indonesia require not only legal action but also a coordinated effort among multiple stakeholders. The formal legal system is necessary for prevention and countering these issues, and must embrace relevant government institutions, law enforcement apparatuses, and society as a whole. Here, People have high expectations that the recently passed Law No. 12/2022 on Sexual Violence Crimes will effectively protect women's rights and support coordinated efforts to prevent and counter such crimes.
The main challenge of the Law implementation lies in law enforcement apparatuses’ perspectives that often do not align with the spirit of the Law that stands for the victim’s perspectives. For example, according to the Women's Health Foundation, Khairul Alam, the Head of the Police Region in Sidayu Gresik, responded to a case of a man kissing a minor girl by stating that it was not considered asexual harassment because neither the man nor the girl had removed their clothes, and the girl’s parents filed no formal complaint. Therefore, in this case, to prevent misinterpretations and the blame often placed on women in cases of harassment and violence, all relevant aspects and parties mentioned in the law must prioritize the rights and needs of the victims. It refers to the treatment of women as victims of harassment and violence that requires compassion and respect for their dignity. Certainly, they are entitled to access to the mechanisms of justice and to prompt redress, as provided for by national legislation, in this case, Law No. 12/2022.
In a further sense, it is important to disseminate gender knowledge as a part of basic lessons at educational institutions or integrate it into some main schools’ subjects. The Law of 20/2003 about the National Education System provides equal education opportunities for all genders. Therefore, The requirement for equal educational opportunities under Law No. 20/2003 should impact the curriculum arrangement in all educational institutions. The law emphasizes the importance of renewing the curriculum to serve the needs of diverse learners. Nevertheless, in reality, the composition of many learning books at educational institutions still comprises gender-bias values, which can lead to justification of harassment and violence against women in the future. To anticipate this, all educational stakeholders are required to develop a sensitive gender learning process, hence, it can improve their perspectives about gender and women, particularly to prevent and counter harassment and violence against women in the future.
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