God day peeps,
Before I talk about the topic Im gonna discuss with you, I'll show you a screenshot from my Google+ page. This post was posted by my friend and I totally agree with what she said. So check this out.
Since I study gender, I would like to talk little bit about feminism. The term feminism was coined in Western world in late 19th century. Generally, feminism tries to bring women's concerns to mainstream so that women's fundamental right can be taken into account in the process of country development. Initially, feminism, in their first wave to third wave movements, were divided into, at least, four categories: liberal, radical, Marxist, and socialist. Each category had its own agenda. Liberal feminism fought for women's right in public sphere, such as access to education and politics. Radical feminism attempted to eliminate patriarchal values from society which were seen as the source of oppression against women. Feminist also adopted Marxism to form Marxist feminism in attempt to fight against capitalism as this ideology had tendency to marginalize women. Last but not least, socialist feminism which was influenced by radical and Marxist feminism, put the core agenda to work for elimination of patriarchal and capitalist values that oppressed women.
For me, I prefer to follow the ideology of social feminism because I hate patriarchy and capitalism that seem try to endanger women. I like the intention of this feminism which is to eradicate all the things that sound or seem to discriminate women especially those that are caused by patriarchal and capital systems. Patriarchy system obviously does not allow women to be in line with men in every aspect of life. Whereas, capitalism influenced by patriarchy has tendency to prioritize men over women. Thus the opportunities for women in political, social, and economical development are still limited.
Specifically, the patriarchy system always tries to put women as inferior to men. Patriarchy believes that women are subordinate. Thus women are only allowed to deal with domestic sphere while men are responsible in public sphere. For instance, women are always referred to domestic work such as cleaning, cooking, child-bearing, child-rearing, and so on. Nowadays, many women have entered public sphere through job employment and political involvement. Yet, they attach to domestic work considerably a lot. I am not saying that men today don't help in domestic work. My father, for example, will cook or do laundry and go for errands to shop household needs if my mother is not able to do so. How about majority men out there? Are they like my father? Well, maybe some of them are but in fact the patriarchy system influences them that they aren't supposed to involve in domestic tasks and follow women instruction. Therefore there are significant numbers of cases that men disrespect women as if women are born to be their slaves. Wallahi, I hate that.
I hate patriarchy so much. I think I hate patriarchy more that I hate capitalism. Well, in fact capitalism is just the matter of competition. Who are qualified to particular positions, men or women, those get the access and privileges. HOWEVER, due to the strong patriarchy system in the society, men always try to sabotage women in any competition. Just saying. I think I detest patriarchy to the max. Hence, I think I am more in favor of radical feminism. But I am not a feminist if I may say. I just believe in the ideology: eliminating all the patriarchal things that discriminate women.
Feminist movements were always seen problematic as their agenda was seen opposite to mainstream agenda. Even though in their land of struggle, Western, which liberalism was promoted publicly, feminist ideology always got countered. That was because the patriarchy system in the Western was still strong then that women were seen as second class or a marginalized group which would never be equal to men. Despite their tough struggle in Western, feminists and their ideology could reach Eastern world. Yet, due to the strong attachment of the Eastern people to communal values, which was strong patriarchal too, the ideology could not go further here. It is not surprising when people in Eastern try hard to block this ideology to be spread in the society since their believe systems also put down on women. And because it was rooted from Western values, people of the East could not simply adopt the feminist values.
Essentially, feminist values and ideology were found in the East far before Western feminism went public. It was reported that women in India, for example, had fought for elimination of oppression and violation against women in the name of religion or custom system, which was Hinduism. In ancient India, women who were left by their husbands due to death, should be burnt as a symbol of faithfulness. This practice was called "sati". In contrast, the husbands whose the wives died did not have the same practice. That's ironic and completely unjust.
Actually, feminism is just a term. It is raised as political issues because the term is from Western world and the ideology is not in line with the hegemony agenda. In Western, feminism might not bring along religious values but their intention to eliminate oppression, violence, and discrimination against women was pure and fruitful. So, why don't we look at the positive sides of their struggle? If we could create a better world in which discrimination does not exist against marginalized groups in terms of gender, ethnicity, religions, race, skin color like feminists strive in their movements, why not?
Alright, let's move to feminism in Indonesian context. Since tomorrow is Kartini's Day in Indonesia, I would like to say HAPPY KARTINI'S DAY to all women and girls in Indonesia. Kartini's Day is a day off to celebrate the born day of Raden Ajeng (R.A.) Kartini, the first woman who start a public woman movement in Indonesia. Kartini was famous with the term emansipasi (emancipation) as she fought for women's rights to be equal to men in access of education and other crucial aspects of life. She protested against Javanese culture that hampered the development of native women in Indonesia. Her enormous struggle to uplift women's dignity has been recognized as a patriotic commitment of speaking up for women's rights in Indonesia. Up until today, people of Indonesia still celebrate her patriotic spirit. I think Kartini's struggle could be consider as one of feminist movements since she fought for women's rights. And the people of Indonesia never see the Kartini's spirit as feminism probably because the term feminism/feminist was not familiar then and they prefer the term that is more practical or culture-friendly which is emansipasi.
Unfortunately, there are so many Indonesians misunderstood this term of emansipasi. Especially those who name themselves conservatives, emansipasi is understood as the efforts to place women and men equal in every aspect of life. Apparently, they assume that emansipasi is potentially to challenge men's power and take over men's position as the guardians or leaders. They have it in their mind that emansipasi tries to place women in public arena and men in home, COMPLETELY. This is absolutely wrong. This is not surprising if they think that way as they are still influenced by patriarchal norms.
Basically, emansipasi comes from an English word "emancipate" which means to give someone the political and legal rights that they did not have before. In fact, emansipasi movement done by Kartini attempted to give chances for women to get education as the right was denied before due to the traditional patriarchal system in the society and the Dutch colonialism. Emansipasi today, however, can be implemented by giving women the opportunities to get into political sphere IF they are really qualified for and not because they should be there due to the certain quota or just fulfilling the so-called gender equality.
This is also wrong to liken emansipasi to gender equality even though both terms are interconnected. As I mention, emansipasi is to give people what they are supposed to get that is denied before. It is not only in terms of gender differences. Instead, emansipasi can refer to returning the rights of any other marginalized groups so that they can also stand together with the mainstream groups in the name of humanity. Gender equality, in contrast, refers to promoting the equal rights of women and girls to support their full participation and involvement in the political, social, and economic development in their communities (UNICEF). In the other words, gender equality is not necessarily to give women and girls the COMPLETELY same rights as the men counterparts given. Gender equality according to Conference on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), is to promote substantive equality which consolidates two main approaches of equality: equality of opportunities and equality of results. Equality of opportunities refers to the same access to the resources or opportunities--such as jobs or positions or training--for both men and women despite their biological and social differences. Equality of results refers to providing different schemes for women and men (as their needs and requirements are different) in order to achieve the same results for both men and women, or to result the positive changes for women so that they can be standing in line with men to realize the country development goals.
The implementation of gender equality is not merely to give the same portion of obligations and of rights to women and men as it is defined in formal equality. Women and men have different characteristics and skills. Women's needs differ from men's needs too. Thus, women's needs could not be fulfilled by giving them men's needs and vice versa. However, in terms of skills, if women are given opportunities to be trained like a man too, it is not impossible if women can do what men do. BUT it should not be across the boundaries as determined in religious faith. I repeat, it should not be across the boundaries as determined in RELIGIOUS faith, not CULTURAL believes. I must emphasize this because people often misunderstand between RELIGIOUS WORSHIP and CULTURAL TRADITIONS. For example, the practice of wearing burqa for women is often referred to a way of worshiping God. In fact, it is just a cultural tradition in Middle East or Arabian countries to keep women protected from men gaze and torture (Arab men are wilder than any other men in the world, reportedly), and according to my Middle Eastern friends wearing fully covering abaya and burqa can protect women's body and face from the heat of enormously hot weather. If you don't believe me, you can try it if you go to Arab countries.
From my last point of view about the difference between religious faith and cultural traditions, you can think that I am not fully rebellious against religion, especially my the only one religion, Islam. I still believe in Allah and I do practice the Islamic ways of life. I just do not place myself in extremist ways of worshiping. As long as I call myself a Muslim, I perform five times prayers, I am fasting during Ramadhan month and Monday-Thursday, I pay Zakat, and someday insha-Allah I will go for Hajj pilgrimage, and most importantly I do not commit a crime against humanity, I think I am free to support the POSITIVE VALUES of liberalism or feminism. Therefore, nothing's wrong with supporting feminism as long as you still stick to religious values and do not cross the line of religious faith. I am not trying to challenge men's positions or rights. I just do not like any statements or circumstances that discriminate women. And before I end my argument, I better leave you with this quote "nowhere in the Koran does it say women are the servants of men".
Most of things stated here is just my two cents, and you are free to have yours too. Or if you have different points of view, please feel free to drop comments here. Thank you and adios.
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