up its own women’s organizations in which women
no longer struggled for their own rights, but were
mobilized for the maintenance of military power
and for national development as obedient wives
and dutiful mothers. The marriage law adopted in
1974 entrenched this process.
This process of depoliticization and domestica-
tion of women by the state (Suryakusuma 1987) led
to the erosion of women’s economic and political
rights. Defined as dependent housewives they were
exploited as cheap laborers. The colonial policy of
denying women subject status before the law was
maintained, so that women did not have, for
instance, independent access to credit provided by
banks.
In the New Order period women did not demon-
strate for their own rights, but many women joined
other protest movements, such as the human rights
or student movements. Women were also in the
forefront of the struggles for labor and land rights.
In a strongly patriarchal culture such as that of
North Sumatra women might bare their breasts in
their struggles to prevent their land being taken
away from them.
In February 1998 women staged major protests
against the high cost of living, particularly of baby
milk. By mobilizing the perception of women as
mothers with a major responsibility for their chil-
dren’s welfare, the failure of the military New
Order was demonstrated. The organization Suara
Ibu Peduli (Voices of concerned mothers) brought
together women of all social classes. When mass
protests followed and major riots broke out (in
which many women, particularly of Chinese
descent, were raped and killed), President Suharto
was forced to step down.
The Reformation Era (after 1998) made it possi-
ble for women again to set up mass organizations
fighting for women’s rights, such as the Indonesian
Women’s Coalition for Justice and Democracy.
One issue that attracted much attention was
women’s political leadership. Certain Islamic parties
declared that Megawati Sukarnoputri (the daugh-
ter of former President Sukarno), the leader of the
party that had won the 1999 elections, could not
become the president of the country. Other Islamic
groups and many women’s groups contested this.
Only in 2002 could she take up the presidency.
Since 1998 many women’s groups have emerged
or have become more active. Critical issues they are
fighting against include the influence of the military
and continued human rights violations as well as
sexual violence against women. Amid rampant cor-
ruption the living conditions of the majority of the
people have not improved so that women again
indonesia 637take to the streets, protesting at the return of the
army to the center of power and at the neoliberal
economic policies.
The decentralization policy of the government
poses new problems for women. The identities of
the newly defined autonomous provinces or regions
are constructed along concepts of women’s behav-
ior and control over their bodies, often based on
particular Islamic interpretations that, for instance,
prescribe the veil or restrict their movements. In
Aceh several women had their heads shaved for
not wearing the veil. Women’s groups are divided
between those who support the introduction of
Islamic law and those who oppose it.Marriage law
One of the issues that have haunted the Indo-
nesian women’s movement from its beginning, and
which still has not been solved satisfactorily, is that
of equal marriage rights for women. While the
Indonesian women’s movement has been able to
unite on many issues, it has continuously been split
on the struggle against polygyny. Secular and
Christian women’s organizations have fought for
its abolition while Muslim women’s groups have
defended it as an essential part of Islamic teaching.
Yet individually many Muslim women have taken
part in actions to abolish this practice, which
demonstrates how Muslim women are controlled
by male-dominated Islamic organizations.
After Kartini had first written about the pain
polygynous husbands caused their wives, referring
to it as a great evil supported by customary law
and Islam, the newly formed women’s organiza-
tions started discussing it. The first all-Indonesian
Women’s Congress in 1928 proposed to fight for a
marriage law that would guarantee women’s rights.
In 1937 the colonial government proposed a draft
marriage law that stipulated monogamy and equal
rights for women in divorce. Islamic groups, in-
cluding women’s organizations, strongly opposed
it, and the Women’s Congress could not support it,
in order to preserve its own unity, and also in the
face of preserving national unity in the struggle
against the Dutch colonial power.
After independence in 1945 the issue was not
resolved. In 1952 a government decree guaranteed
the widows of polygynous men twice the amount
the widow of a monogamous husband would get.
Nineteen women’s organizations strongly opposed
this de factolegalization of polygyny, which also
amounted to the state subsidy of the practice. In
1953 women took to the streets, in the first demon-
stration for women’s rights after independence.
Muslim women joined individually, not as members