Solidarity Perempuan (SP)
For basic rights for women
Demanding basic rights for women is not self-evident
Although significant progress has been made in the area of equal rights over the past 25 years, Indonesia is currently at a turning point. Conservative Muslim organisations are campaigning to turn back the clock and openly state that feminism goes against the country’s traditional values. Together with other feminist groups, the SP is directly opposing this. Much work remains to be done to achieve greater equality, including quotas for better representation of women in politics, better legislation on land ownership for women and better protection for women against the climate crisis, which is hitting women particularly hard.
Better protect women's rights
About 5 million Indonesian women work abroad and bring in a lot of foreign currency, but when they get into trouble, such as an employer who breaches contract, the government often leaves them to their fate. SP has a network to help women who are left out in the cold and they strive for better legal protection.
The lack of a perspective on a stable income forces rural women in particular to go and work in Malaysia or Saudi Arabia. SP advocates a more inclusive and social policy that stimulates the local economy instead of focusing primarily on large-scale investments and projects that often lead to forced relocation and loss of fertile land.
Thanks to lobbying by the SP, among others, the government has approved better legal protection for migrant workers, but there are still gaps. For example, the government must make firm agreements with the host countries so that they can better regulate and monitor working conditions, and the establishment of a reporting center is still pending.
Sharia is discriminatory against women
As noted above, discrimination against women, and by extension, the LGBTIQ community, still exists in Indonesia. Nearly 200 local governments have implemented aspects of Sharia law under pressure from conservative religious groups, with disastrous consequences for women’s and LGBTI+ rights.
In the province of Aceh, they go the furthest, the religious police ensure that women follow the dress code and do not go out on the street without a male 'accompaniment' or that two men live under one roof. Moreover, transgressive behaviour by men inside the home goes unpunished. Together with many other women's and human rights organisations, SP denounces this and advocates for these discriminatory measures to be scaled back.
