TSUNAMI-IMPACT:
 

Acehnese Women Rediscover Role in Society
Fabio Scarpello

JAKARTA, Jul 26 (IPS) - Women once ruled the defunct Sultanate of Aceh whose history speaks of women admirals and matriliny. But after the principality merged into a larger Indonesia in 1949, women became marginalised and it took a devastating tsunami for them to rediscover their traditionally dominant role in Acehnese society.

''The tsunami has changed Aceh's social and political landscape and it is time for women to return to playing a bigger role in society,'' said Arabiyani who works for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)’s Aceh Project.

Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra island, suffered the brunt of the Dec. 26 tsunami. When the waters withdrew, over 130,000 people were left dead and most of the region was reduced to a rubble.

According to Oxfam, in some villages the undersea earthquake, and the tsunami it triggered, killed up to four times as many women as men.

The catastrophe forced President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to open the door to foreign help. Aceh - the theatre of a 30-year-long war – had been sealed off to keep the judgmental eyes of the world for over two years of brutal suppression. .

Women – raped, tortured, killed or widowed – took the brunt of the conflict that has left over 15,000 people dead. Yet, women were also at the forefront of survival strategies that sustained their families and communities through the conflict.

The tsunami brought the world media to Aceh and the spotlight resulted in international pressure on both Jakarta and the rebel group, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to end the civil war.

The opportunity was seized by President Yudhoyono who gave the green light for new peace talks in Helsinki. At the end of the fifth round of the talks, mediated by former Finnish president Maarti Ahtisaari, the two warring parties agreed to stop the hostilities and a formal peace deal is scheduled to be signed on Aug. 15.

It is a new dawn in Aceh but it is going to be a long time before women can reclaim anything like the pivotal role they historically played in the province.

Seafaring Arab traders who brought Islam to the Indonesian archipelago recorded that the Acehnese were a matrilineal people and that in Acehnese society women played prominent roles in politics and society.

Even after embracing Islam, the sultanate boasted a succession of female rulers and Aceh even had a woman admiral Laksamana Koemalahayati heading the royal navy in the late 15th century.

During the colonial period , women guerilla leaders like Cut Nya' Dhien, Cut Meutia, Pocut Baren and Pocut Mirah Inteun fought and resisted Dutch designs on the province between 1871 and 1901.

Women’s roles declined only after Indonesia gained independence and the new republic steamrollered over hundreds distinct ethnic identities in the vast archipelago. In Aceh, the matrilineal system crumbled away before a male-dominated political and religious elite.

''There is a glass ceiling. It is clear that at the grassroots level, women have a role. The problem is at the top. That is where they are put down,'' said Arabiyani.

Nonetheless there are signs that the tide is turning. More than 70 percent of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in Aceh are either women's groups, or groups which mainly employ women.

Post-tsunami, women took a leading role. They looked after the children and the injured and took part in search and rescue operations. They also made up the bulk of the staff employed by in the international organisations that swarmed over the area with help.

And now the women have begun to ask for more.

Some 400 women from across the province flocked to Banda Aceh for the second Acehnese Women's Conference on Jun. 16. The first conference was held in 2000. During the four-day event, women demanded a voice in the reconstruction phase and in the future of the province.

''Women are at the centre of the families. They are the ones that can best help to restore the social fabric of society and they must have a bigger role in how to do this,'' said Arabiyani.

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, director of the Aceh Reconstruction Agency, agrees. ''I am convinced that it is women who will bring about change,'' he was quoted as saying soon after the conference.

Earlier, on Jun. 10, women academics, lawyers, activists and students marched to the Aceh Provincial Legislative Council asking for a revision of the law that regulates the election of the head of the regional government.

As it stands, Article 41 of the law reads that candidates must be ''able to administer Islamic law, able to read the holy Quran and able to become a leader of communal prayer and preacher at a mosque''.

Aceh is the only Indonesian province under Islamic Sharia Law which prohibits women from becoming leaders of communal prayer or preachers, effectively barring them from running for electoral office.

Aceh is due to hold a regional election in April 2006 but political representation is still a secondary concern for women in the villages and in the province’s hinterland.

Dedik Harianty, head of the local NGO, Perampuan Merdeka (Women's Freedom), said that human rights abuses, domestic violence and the right to study are the most pressing problems of the majority of women in the villages.

''We do not talk about politics. We talk about women’s daily issues. We try to build their confidence so that they can one day speak out about their rights,'' said the soft-spoken activist.

Founded in 2000, Perampuan Merdeka has had a difficult time in Aceh as result of the civil strife. The organisation’s office was first raided and closed by the Indonesian Military (TNI) in July 2003.

The NGO regrouped elsewhere, but the TNI came back with a vengeance. On Aug. 26, 2004 the office was closed again and this time three of the group’s leaders - Krisna, Irma and Samsidar – were arrested.

Aceh’s post-tsunami scenario has been instrumental for the NGO’s return in March 2005.

''We have used the tsunami-related problem to reach the people. Now we have more courage as the situation has changed,'' said Harianty, adding that the tsunami has brought in many journalists, and so the issue of human rights abuse is now out in the open.

Rina, 24, is one of the young women who joined Perampuan Merdeka soon after the NGO restarted its mission. ''I really had no idea about women's rights. I am not saying that now I know it all, but for sure, I know it better and there is no turning back,'' she said. (END/2005)