Women at Point Zero
If Nawal El-Shaddai were Indonesian, She would write a more sad story than “Women at Point Zero”. Probably She would have given a sadder title: “Women at Point Minus 1000”. The inequality between man and woman is one of the major sources of the inequality in the world. The first place of the inequality is at home when the strong rule the weak and the strong interpret all the truth. For most of the cases the strong is man, and the weak is woman. However, not only in the “domestic” the inequality exists, but also in the “foreign”, the workplace and social life.
Emma Goldman, an anarchist activist, suggested to rebel and war upon the entire system, which created by man. She did not believe that the true liberty is from the US constitution, but from the fight for freedom: rebellion and revolution. Her idea on rebellion was not from the books, but from her childhood harassment experience: the domestic violence. It happened when her fathers treated her mother, her sister, and herself with cruelty. She was imprisoned several times and died alone in exile as the consequence of her struggle against the system. However, her idea in women movement still alive: true liberty cannot come alone from the constitution, but you have to fight for that. You cannot wait for the true liberty come alone, because you will die before it really happens. I don’t know whether Marsinah read the idea of Emma Goldman or had a bad experience in her childhood, but they have the same way: rebellion against the unjust ruler. Marsinah is not just the symbol of the labor fighting, but also women movement in Indonesia. She was died with the brutal torture on her genital part. She was tortured and killed not just as the labor activist, but also left a gender bias. We have many “Marsinah” which still dying out there, especially in TKW (Women Labor Force) in Malaysia or Arab Saudi. They are working without any strong protection from labor union or government.
“Tinung” is another sad story of the women in Indonesia. Tinung, in novel Ca Bau Kan, is a prostitute: a woman who serves man with her body. The society has inequality treatment on the Tinung problem: the women always given the worse side. Even though the male prostitute exists, the society associates the prostitute with women. The preacher called them a sinner, a trash on society, which should be vanished. The housewives curse them as the disturbance of the family. The society put the women as the troublemaker. They forget that the major source of the existence of the Tinung is the demand for their service. The demand comes from the husband and son, the ruler in home, and also the whole world. Probably the Rendra Poetry, title “Bersatulah Pelacur-Pelacur Kota Jakarta” (Be United The Jakarta’s Prostitute) can give us a better understanding the reason of the existing of Tinung in the whole world: the whole system of society which ruled by man. Marsinah and Tinung are the symbol of the gender inequality treatment in Indonesia. The fact on statistical data can give a better support. In the 1990 data, the comparison between female and male student on university were 40% to 60%, which is better than 1980: 6% to 94%. The senior high school in the 1990 were 44% to 56 %, while in the 1980: 38% to 62%. Azkia (2001), in “The Relationship Between Women’s Formal Education and Socio-Economic and Political Development for Indonesia in the Period 1980-2000” found that there was a fact that the increase of female literacy rates during the study period was higher that that of male: 3.6% to 2.0%. However, it was found that the percentage of female professional does not exactly correspond to their share of earned income: the average percentage of female professional and technical workers during a ten-year time was 41.3 percent while that of female’s share of earned income was 33.02 percent, and thus there is a difference of 8.01 percent. In addition, the empirical data shows that there was only 11.1 percent of female in parliament during 1980-2000, which is the similar trend in almost all countries in the world.
Not only Marsinah and Tinung, there is also “Alia”, a fiction character, become the symbol of Aceh women, who had been raped. There were also thousands women raped in Bosnia, and the entire world: both in war and peacetime. They have been raped not only by the stranger, but also their trusted friend, their boyfriend, and even worse: their husband. The entire society has raped them in the physical, psychological, and social life. The women are also discriminated not only in the “foreign”, but also in “domestic”. Probably that is the reason of Eve Ensler (2001) in “Vagina Monologue”, try to explore the women genital as the protest to the society on the inequality and also unjust treatment. Some activists, including Emma Goldman, suggest rebellion to the entire society system, which is ruled and interpreted by man, as the only solution. I, myself, suggest that the inequality and unjust reduction could be started in our home: when a mother treat her sons and daughter in the same way and gives equal opportunity or when the brother respect to his sister and mother.
The poetry below, titled ‘hair’ is taken From “Vagina Monologue” Eve Ensler (2001). Unfortunately, it was erased.
Before erased, I wrote this “Reader, please respond either this poetry should be erased or kept, I am worry about reader’s opinion about this…”
After erased, I am writing this “After considering many opinions, I decided to erase the poetry, our culture still do not have a permission for this kind of poetry. The idea of this opinion started five years ago, after having watch the performance of VM in GMU, Virgina, US, in February 14th, 2001. This year is the 7th year of the performance.”
