Indonesian Activists Speak Out Against New Legislation
Worldwide, soaring food prices, mounting unemployment, Wall Street scandals, and countries on the brink of financial default have given rise to protests that have brought down entire governments. Citizens everywhere are mobilizing to demand accountability for the global financial crisis. As media and opinion leaders race to make sense of these burgeoning political movements, they are hardly a new phenomenon. Women everywhere have always joined forces in times of crises, pooling resources, building solidarity, and using their collective power to push for lasting social and economic change. Throughout 2012, JASS will be using its movement-building expertise to advance women’s rights through ‘economic democracy’. Read more.
JASS Indonesia has joined more than 130 national, regional and international women’s and human rights organizations to demand the immediate repeal of the newly-issued government regulation permitting female circumcision (‘sunat perempuan’). In its 2007 concluding observations, the CEDAW Committee recommended that Indonesia develop and implement national legislation and policies prohibiting this custom, especially the demedicalization of the practice by midwives and traditional birth attendants, as well as, launch a nation-wide public awareness campaign. JASS SEA’s Niken Lestari participated in the coalition of NGOs spearheading the effort to push the government to deliver.
Forging A New Mix of Economic and Political Strategy in SEA
Celebrating Inclusive
Women's Movements
JASS activists from across Southeast Asia came together at a regional meeting in November to chart a powerful strategic direction for JASS SEA that combines economic (needs) and political (rights) organizing efforts. JASS SEA will be building on the work of our partners PESADA and PEKKA, which have developed innovative strategies for organizing economic cooperatives that thrive and build women's capacity to promote rights and democracy in their communities.
JASS SEA activist Maria Mustika (Indonesia) traveled to Nepal for CREA’s Count Me In! Conference, which brought together over 300 sex workers, disabled, single, young, lesbian and HIV-positive women, and trans people from across South and Southeast Asia, to discuss violence against marginalized women and resistance strategies. “The conference opened our minds and hearts to the differences and commonalities between us, and how we can work together and be stronger together,” said Maria, who is actively challenging taboos and stigma around sex and sexuality in her community. Read more.
JASS Ally Awarded World Bank Prize
Innovative ICT Approach
Wins Praise
Who wins over both feminist activists and the World Bank and Japanese government? The answer is PEKKA, JASS’ Indonesian partner, a network of women headed households. Nani Zulminarni, JASS Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator and founding director of PEKKA, was in Washington, DC with her colleague Petronella Peniloli, PEKKA leader and Village Chief, on January 19th for the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF). Selected after a thorough assessment by Bank experts, PEKKA was chosen as the number one best project funded by the JSDF. Read more
JASS SEA alum, Kamilia Manaf, was recently interviewed about the launch of a comic strip designed to teach LGBTQI youth about their rights using Yogyakarta principles. Her organization, the Indonesian Youth Lesbian Center is well-known for its cretaive use of ICTs to make LGBTQI rights accessible to a wide range of audiences. As a founder and director, Kamilia describes their motto as "EDUFUNTAINMENT: Education, Fun, and Entertainment," a strategy that incorporates creative arts and sports to create safe spaces for young LGBTQI empowerment. Lauded for its inventive approach, the comic strip will be translated and shared with activists worldwide.
Zulminarni Wins
Women’s Rights Award
Young Timorese Feminists
Engage with Nation Building
JASS proudly celebrates Nani Zulminarni, Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator, whose ground-breaking work with Indonesian women has won her the prestigious Saparinah Sadli Award, created and named for a pioneering feminist scholar and activist, which honors women leaders for their significant contributions to women’s advancement. As Nani points out, the award is “unique in a country where most awards are created by and given to men!”
“The young Timorese women in JASS are taking up this rare strategic opportunity to influence nation-building and their new government,” says Nani Zulminarni JASS Southeast Asia’s co-director. The Timorese were deeply divided over independence and resulting tensions are affecting nascent women’s movements. JASS training provides a safe space where women can surface and address painful conflicts and build alliances and a more inclusive feminist agenda.
Indonesia: Vote Women!
JASS Southeast Asia:
"Dear Mr. President"
Before Indonesia’s elections, PESADA and JASS Southeast Asia held political education workshops on women’s political rights on the North Sumatran island of Nias, emphasizing the importance of voting women onto the Legislative Council. JASS’ Niken Lestari also joined actions to raise women’s political awareness through a blog in Indonesian and a Vote Women! campaign that included a TV talk show.
“We have waited long enough.” So begins an important letter to the new President of the Philippines signed by 22 partner organizations and several prominent women’s rights activists as part of an organizing effort facilitated by JASS Philippines with the Center for Women’s Resources and the Women’s Legal Bureau. This letter illustrates the tremendous organizing power of JASS in the region. Read More
Villa Sahara of Indonesia
JASS Activist
Imprisoned in Indonesia
Villa Sahara of Indonesia manages the implementation of the Women’s Legal Empowerment (WLE) program at the village level, connecting them with central level justice institutions, enabling active community participation throughout the development process. Involved in JASS since June 2008, she wants to learn how feminist movements can be integrated into economic, social and political systems and strategies.
Eva Susanti, an activist trained and supported by JASS Southeast Asia, is being held by police in Indonesia. Susanti’s colleagues at JASS SEA have launched a letter writing campaign, calling on Indonesian authorities to release her. Along with local farmers and their families, Susanti was speaking out against the environmental destruction wrecked by the palm oil industry. Read more...
Bridging Divides in Southeast Asia
Indonesian Feminists Spanning Generations
Before Indonesia’s elections, PESADA and JASS Southeast Asia held political education workshops on women’s political rights on the North Sumatran island of Nias, emphasizing the importance of voting women onto the Legislative Council. JASS’ Niken Lestari also joined actions to raise women’s political awareness through a blog in Indonesian and a Vote Women! campaign that included a TV talk show.
JASS Southeast Asia is facilitating the creation of multigenerational women’s movements by bringing together young women across JASS with older, more established feminists. In one such movement building institute in Bogor, Indonesia, young women from 22 provinces across the country analyzed power from the personal to the national, tracked the history of women's organizing, and framed an agenda for making change.
Regional Movement Building in Parapat
Watch the incredible video documenting the voices of young feminist from Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam and Thailand.
Compiled by Niken Lestari, JASS Southeast Asia Program Associate, and Annie Holmes, JASS Knowledge Coordinator
In general, JASS sees our role as contributing to change; we don’t claim to cause it. But in certain moments, someone’s life can be transformed by a timely intervention. And that seems to be the case for Yasinta, a young activist from Timor Leste.
A group of young women from Indonesia and Timor Leste were invited to the first JASS movement-building institute in Southeast Asia (in Bogor, Indonesia, June 2007). Here, they shared a common language – Indonesian – and a common commitment to social justice, but also the complicated history of their two countries, as colonized and colonizer.
At this point, Yasinta worked with a large social justice group, La'o Hamutuk, and – as she stresses – had little knowledge of gender issues. At the end of the Bogor workshop, she commented, “it brought me new knowledge ... I am now able to understand more about women’s movements and young feminists, about power relations, and about LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender]. The experiences shared by other participants about their work have motivated me to continue my struggle for personal change and to support my friends who have less information about this, and to do awareness-raising in my own organization." >>continue
JASS Southeast Asia at PEKKA
Jl. Lapangan 1, Komplek Duren Sawit Asri
Kav. 1 No. 2A
Rawa Domba, Duren Sawit,
Jakarta Timur
Indonesia
Tele: 62 21 860 9325 or 860 3787
Fax: 62 21 860 3787 jass.sea@gmail.com
