Blog 4: Social Media Gives Indonesian Women New Voice

Social media is one of the forces aiding in globalization, which is currently working in favor of women’s equality rights. Indonesia is actually a social media obsessed country; Twitter, Face Book, blogs, and mobile phone networking groups are spreading information more quickly than ever before, not unlike the United States. Currently all the buzz over networking sites is geared towards the attacks on women and having legal systems in place to protect wives in children.

In July, after a four day marriage, Aceng Fikri divorced his new 17 year old bride through a text message. Outrage over the issue stemmed from a picture of the couple leaking out onto Twitter, followed by the fact that the marriage was performed illegally. Indonesia allows polygamy if the first wife consents to it, but if she does not, Islamic church officials can secretly perform the additional marriage. Marriage laws are violated on a regular basis, and without the marriage certificate the wife has no legal rights. Children from these marriages are considered illegitimate as a result and not even given a birth certificate. That creates a myriad of problems later in life when the child is trying to attend school or get a passport.

Women are using the social networks to promote awareness of the lack of legal rights, and also to lobby for the creation of protection laws. Government officials are still making claims that rape could be enjoyable, or women dress in a way that asks for rape. Because of the added activism of popular social networks, the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is beginning to publicly chastise and denounce others in the government making sexists comments/rulings.

This article fits in with my last blog very well. Women around the world are using social networks to spread awareness of equality. With so many people using Facebook and Twitter, it is becoming impossible to ignore the injustice occurring. In every social movement, before action can occur there must be substantial media attention. Society is starting to get to the point where we see so many stories of gruesome gender violence with a lack of legal attention that the law must start to act.  There is also a trend in the world of jaded legal officials toward women’s issues. In Delhi, there was hesitation before persecuting the gang rape perpetrators. Indonesia has judges on the Supreme Court suggesting that rape is fun for the victim. Globally women are still unequal in the legal system, and even overlooked. As much as I hate Facebook, it is at least getting the word out on injustice.

Dylan Reddish
2/19/13 10:30 pm

http://world.time.com/2013/02/18/social-media-gives-indonesian-women-new-voice/