AFTER AN AMAZING WOMAN NAMED KARTNI..

BY: SANDRINA SARWOKO

@hi_dri

Today, there are 5 strong powerful female ministers in President Jokowi’s cabinet, had our first female President in 2001, Indonesia ranks fourth for percentage of women in senior management positions at 37%, according to Grant Thornton International report in 2020 behind Philippines, South Africa, Poland, although still so so so many lack ofs.... We thank Kartini who opened the door for female higher education.

Thought it is soooo related to all of us here in the group to know the story behind it, why April 21st was declared as Kartini’s day/Indonesian woman’s day in 1964.

It was picked after the birth date of KARTINI, an extraordinary advance thinking Javanese woman, back in 1879, when Indonesia was still part or the Dutch colony before went independent Fin 1945. What Kartini did was the spirit of women’s empowerment and the fight for the right to have higher education, equality, freedom to learn, to have women’s voices heard of the sufferings of Javanese women fettered by tradition, unable to study, secluded, and who must be prepared to participate in polygamous marriages with men they don’t know.. Even later she died at a very young age, 25, after giving birth of her only child.

After she turned 12 she was secluded at home, which was a common practice among young female Javanese nobles, to prepare them for wedlock. During seclusion, girls were not allowed to leave their parents’ house until they were married, after which the authority over them was transferred to their husbands. Kartini’s father was more lenient than some during his daughter’s seclusion, giving her such privileges as embroidery lessons and occasional appearances in public for special events.

During her seclusion, Kartini continued to self-educate herself. She was fluent in Dutch and acquired several Dutch pen friends. Books, newspapers, and European magazines fed Kartini’s interest in European feminist thinking and fostered the desire to improve the conditions of indigenous Indonesian women, which at the time had a very low social status.

Kartini’s reading included the Semarang newspaper, to which she began to send contributions that were published. Before she was 20 she had read so many important books from Dutch authors about colonialism, anti-war, historical novels. All were in Dutch.

Kartini was not only concerned with the emancipation of women but also other problems of her society. Kartini saw that the struggle for women to obtain their freedom, autonomy, and legal equality was just part of a wider movement.

Kartini’s parents arranged her marriage to Joyodiningrat, the Regency Chief of Rembang, who had already married three wives. She detested the marriage proposal at first, but her husband understood Kartini’s aspirations and allowed her to establish a women’s school on the eastern porch of Rembang’s Regency Office complex. Kartini’s only child was born on September 13, 1904. After which a few days later on 17 September 1904, Kartini died at the age of 25.

She was supposed to go to Tokyo to study to become a teacher, but then came to nothing because she was going to be married. Her esteemed husband supported her desire to develop the woodcarving industry in Jepara and the school for native women, she also mentioned that she was going to write a book. This ambition was unrealized as a result of her premature death at age 25.

When her letters to her pen friends later published after she died, she became the voice of women emancipation. Kartini Schools were opened for girls in several cities in Java, to continue their education after primary education.

Ps. She was a vegetarian.