Today is International Women’s Day, a time not just to celebrate women’s achievements but also to reflect on the hardships that Indonesian women still suffer to this day, including those in the capital.
The Commission on Violence Against Woman (Komnas PA) yesterday released a damning report on the number of reported cases of violence against women in Indonesia. In total, there were 13,602 reported cases throughout all of 2016, which averages to around 37 each day.
Sadly, Jakarta as a province took the undesirable top spot with 2,552 reported cases, followed by the provinces of East Java with 1,635, West Java with 1,377, and Central Java with 1,123.
Komnas Perempuan found that there was no clear pattern on who became victims of violence, as in it could happen to women from all areas of society.
“There was no link between a higher level of education, social or economic status and a decreased amount of violence,” said Komnas Perempuan’s head of Monitoring sub-commission Indraswari, as quoted by Kompas.
Komnas Perempuan also found that 75% of all reported cases last year were cases of domestic violence.
The voices of feminists and pro-feminist groups have been getting louder in Indonesia lately, with Saturday’s Jakarta Women’s March being the latest example of the movement. While some have questioned the need for such a movement in Indonesia, it is clear that patriarchal beliefs, which reinforce victim blaming and the idea that women are second class citizens, is still prevalent in our society, even amongst law enforcers, making women especially vulnerable to gender-based violence.
