Kartini: Between Islam, nation-building and feminism
Hendri Yulius ;
The writer, who obtained his
Master’s in public policy
from the National University of
Singapore, is the writer of Coming Out
and a lecturer of gender and
sexuality studies
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JAKARTA POST, 21
April 2016
Although
she is hailed as the symbol of Indonesian women’s empowerment, Raden Ajeng
Kartini remains open to various interpretations and imagery. The New Order
regime twisted and reduced the significance of Kartini Day, commemorated
annually on her birthday of April 21, into a kebaya fashion show to emphasize
women’s femininity and domestication.
Meanwhile,
modern feminist groups reclaim her as the representation of the early
Indonesian feminist, who was not only concerned about women’s issues, but
also about the struggle for the independence from Dutch colonialism.
However,
Indonesia’s early feminist consciousness was essentially different from the
modern one. Only since the mid-1990s have the terms “feminism” and “gender”
been widely used. Therefore, Kartini might illustrate the historical
development of Indonesian feminist consciousness, which emerged at the
intersection of nationalism, Islam and Western values.
Before
colonialization, women appeared to have access to high status. The historian
Cora Vreede-De Stuers shows that Acehnese women participated in local forces
to combat Dutch rule, while many Javanese women became leaders. The modern
economy, alongside Western education, significantly transformed society. The
historian Denys Lombard asserts that the emergence of ports, urban society
and Islam further limited women’s roles. Some local traditions also
restricted women from enjoying equal opportunities with men.
Born
in 1879 to a feudal family, Kartini, at a young age, wanted to be a teacher
to improve the education of young women. She dreamed of studying in the
Netherlands to obtain a teacher’s certification and establish a boarding
school for women. But Javanese traditions made Kartini leave school at 12 and
enter the confinement of her own home. She started to read voraciously and
write letters to her Dutch friends -- letters clearly imbued with her
anxieties, hopes and dreams for women and independence.
Motherhood,
being child bearers and child educators gave women a reason to be involved in
public life, increasing their importance in preparing the next generation for
the nation’s progress. Hence, motherhood became a vehicle of empowerment.
In
one of her letters, Kartini wrote that Europe was the center of civilization
and advancement. However, as a female native living under colonial
oppression, Kartini witnessed injustice and exploitation, as noted by
literary scholar Katrin Bandel.
Furthermore,
her interest in Western knowledge coincided with her love and respect for her
family and nation. Consequently, although she was fascinated with the
advancement of women’s rights in the West, she could not entirely detach
herself from either Javanese culture or Islamic values. Some resources even
indicated that she was a disciple of famous Islamic scholar K. Saleh Darat
as-Samarani (1820-1903).
Unlike
the modern feminist notion, Kartini instead emphasized that the empowerment
of Indonesian women could not simply be separated from their roles of mother
and husband. In a letter she highlighted the importance of women and
motherhood. “It is from women that humans receive their first education — on
a woman’s lap, a child gradually learns to feel, think and speak; I came to
realize more and more that the effect of the first education is not
insignificant to human life ...”
Moreover,
she apparently saw women’s education and advancement as a crucial aspect of
nation-building through the development of morality. She wrote that “women
are the pillars of civilization. Not because women are considered capable of
the task, but because I myself strongly believe… that women make the biggest
contribution to advancement of human morality.”
In
line with the concept of “maternal feminism” cited by the scholar Elisabeth
Locher-Scholten, Kartini thus followed the Javanese gender ideal of being a
wife a mother working together with her husband to educate her children, to
prepare the next generation. In this context, women’s empowerment also should
not conflict with a harmonious marriage.
Kartini
thus believed that, “God created women to be men’s partners, and their
ultimate purpose in life is to have a husband… I gladly declare that women’s
ultimate happiness for now and the next centuries will be to live
harmoniously with men!” Kartini clearly reappropriated women’s empowerment
discourse to fit the dominant ideologies, such as Islam, nationalism and the
Javanese ideal of being a woman.
To
understand Kartini’s thoughts means to examine the complexity of the
interactions between Islam, nation-building and Western values. Although
inspired by Western progress, Kartini developed her concept of women’s
empowerment between the boundaries of Islam, Javanese ideals and traditional
gender norms.
Sadly,
in 1903, Kartini was forced to marry the regent of Rembang and became his
fourth wife. She passed away after giving birth to her first child. Yet her
figure remains an example of the fluidity of cultural discourses and how
feminist discourse in Indonesia cannot be separated from its interactions
with local aspects. It is no exaggeration to say that Kartini is a national
figure with a transnational mind. ●
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