WOMEN! And stuff

April 21 marked my second Hari Katini (or Kartini Day) in Indonesia. Hari Kartini is a day to celebrate Raden Ayu Kartini who is known today as Indonesia's prominent feminist figure. My home girl Kartini was born on April 21, 1879, into a royal Javanese family with an intellectual background. Her family only allowed her to attend school until the age of 12 (typical for Indonesian women at the time). However, Kartini continued to educate herself. She was passionate about empowering women with regards to freedom, autonomy, and legal equality. She married in November 1903 to a man who already had 3 wives. Lucky for her, Kartini's husband understood her wishes and allowed her to build a school for women. Kartini later passed away a few days after giving birth to her only son in 1904. OH! And fun fact: Homeslice Tini was a vegetarian. You go, girl.

 Here's a photo of her:

My school didn't want to celebrate Kartini Day on Tuesday, so we postponed festivities until Saturday. We basically had a 6 hour long talent competition. Additionally, students and staff members dressed up in traditional Indonesian clothing. I got jazzed up in a Kebaya and even got my hair and make up did. I wish I had a picture to show you, but sadly I do not.

During Hari Kartini festivities, I thought about women's rights in Indonesia. Of course there is plenty of work to be done here, but I'm an optomist. I like looking at the positives! So, here's a list of aspects of women's issues in Indonesia that have surprised me:

1) Wearing a hijab at my school is an option, not a requirment. I teach at a public high school (SMA), but some of my female students chose not to cover their hair. Of course majority of my students still want to wear the hijab, but that is a personal preference. Madrasahs, which are Islamic high schools, require females to wear head scarves.

2) There's no glass ceiling here. That's right, America. Take notes. Men and women receive equal pay if they have the same job and have been working for the same amount of time. BOOM.

3) The Indonesian government encourages women to get married after the age of 20. I went to a wedding last week. Guess how old the bride was? 26.

4) DUA ANAK CICUP. Sorry, that must have just sounded like random sounds to you, but they mean things here. DAC is the national family planning slogan. It literally translates into "Two children are enough." Many Indonesian families have only one or two children. After that, women AND men line up at their local Puskesmas to get sterilized. My host mom had her tubes tied and my CP's husband got a vasectomy. Boo yeah to small families!

5) Females are stereotyped to be better students. I'm not the biggest fan of this because that means my male students think it's cool to slack off.

6) Majority of my students are females. YUP. About 70% of my kids are girls. Apparently the male students tend to drop out. I haven't seen much of this, but maybe they drop out before high school? Idk. If anyone else has an answer, lemme know iya?

7) More women are becoming midwives. Midwives are trained to deliver babies and inform women when/if they need to head to the emergency room. My fellow PCV and dear friend Cait knows more about this. I'll let her speak on this subject matter. Here's the link to her brilliant blog A Prairie State of Mind- The Feminst I Live With

Like I said before, there's a lot of women's issues that I disagree with here. However, I don't want to mention them in my blog because I'm afraid of offending anyone in my village. Plus, America could use some work in the feminism department, so who am I to judge?