Preventing Sexual Violence

KOMPAS/ABDULLAH FIKRI ASHRI

Sa'adah

Sa’adah, 43, is distressed every time she is confronted with cases of violence against women and children in Cirebon, West Java. Moreover, victims of violence experience negative stigma. The manager of the Mawar Balqis Women’s Crisis Center has provided guidance to victims for over a decade, despite the many challenges.

Sa’adah’s cell phone rang four times in less than 30 minutes while she was having lunch on Monday (21/3/2022) in Junjang village, Arjawinangun district, Cirebon regency. The calls were from her colleagues and other staff at the local manpower office.

They were discussing preparations for International Women’s Day. A program titled “Break the Bias” was being held by the Cirebon Network for Humanity, the Mawar Balqis Women’s Crisis Center (WCC) and Fahmina Institute. The program promoting women’s rights and gender equality was to be held from 8 to 25 March 2022.

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As part of the program’s activities, Sa’adah and her colleagues toured different villages, pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) and other schools. They presented subjects related to childcare, reproductive health and preventing sexual violence and human trafficking. She also spoke about these subjects on local radio and television programs.

In a single day, Sa’adah could be speaking at two villages more than 20 kilometers apart. In the evenings, she occasionally had online meetings on women’s issues, including the bill on preventing sexual violence. In the mornings, she is busy teaching English at two private schools.

During school hours, Sa’adah makes sure to slip in some information on human trafficking and sexual violence. A former student once wanted to register her diploma, but oddly enough, her age was increased on the document. Sa’adah promptly called the graduate for fear that she was being targeted for human trafficking.

“The graduate said the diploma was obtained from a [migrant worker recruitment company]. I said, ask the [company employee] to come to the school. In the end, she withdrew her application for legalizing [her diploma],” Sa’adah related, clearly irritated over the incident, hitting a stack of her students’ exam papers on her desk.

Families also often demand that pregnant teens get married to avoid the shame of giving birth to an illegitimate child.

Not infrequently, she steps in to mediate when a student is being forced into marriage through matchmaking or because the student has gotten pregnant. There is an assumption that marriage will lessen their parents' burden. Families also often demand that pregnant teens get married to avoid the shame of giving birth to an illegitimate child.

“We strive to prevent child marriage. This kind of marriage opens the door to more abuse,” said Sa’adah.

Girls who married before they were of legal age faced the risk of becoming victims of domestic violence and divorce, because their husbands feel they have the power and right to do whatever

they want. Usually, continued Sa’adah, the husband would tell their wife to become a migrant worker. Eventually, their children would not get the best care and would be left under the care of their grandmother. In several cases, the children’s father would remarry and finally divorce their mother, who were working in another country.

KOMPAS/ABDULLAH FIKRI ASHRI

Sa'adah.

Although these were common outcomes of a child marriage, very few people were aware of them.

“Out of 10 people we ask not to marry off their children, maybe only one or two will agree. We sometimes justify the normal practice, instead of trying to raise their awareness of what is right,” she said.

Over a decade

Sa’adah knows what she is talking about. In 2007, she started learning about the issues of sexual violence and human trafficking issues through a training program arranged by Fahmina Institute, a nongovernmental organization that focuses on gender justice and community empowerment. At the time, Sa’adah was attending the program as a representative of her school and as a member of her village’s community youth group.

During the program, the pesantren graduate met with other advocates of gender justice like K.H. Husein Muhammad, who deconstructed the prevailing view that women were always under the control of men. Sa’adah actively spoke about these social issues on a community radio station.

In 2010, she became involved with Mawar Balqis WCC, an NGO that provided guidance for women and children who were victims of abuse. At the center, which was cofounded by H. Husein Muhammad, she started handling cases of sexual violence.

Organizations such as Mawar Balqis were rarely found those days. Social media and universities were not as prolific as sources of information as they are today. Sa’adah also had to track down information and case reports in the villages. On occasion, she traveled dozens of kilometers by motorcycle along the northern coast to visit victims in Indramayu.

Most victims, she said, were unwilling to file a report because they felt that being a victim of sexual violence was shameful. They also felt they were being blamed and stigmatized because, for example, they wore revealing clothes or went out at night.

“Such stigmas only worsen the state of the victim,” said Sa’adah.

They often thought over the matter many times before agreeing to file a report. Besides worrying about the potential financial costs, they were also constrained because they lived far from victim support centers. For example, victims living in Waled, Cirebon, would have to travel around 40 km to reach the Cirebon administration’s victim support center in Sumber.

“The hardest thing is to make the victims understand that they are victims, and not that this was their fate or a risk of the job,” Sa’adah said. In several cases, she discovered that the victim’s family had decided to make peace with the perpetrator of sexual abuse instead of taking the legal path.

Under threats

Sa’adah doesn’t remember the number of victims she has helped. What she is certain about is that all cases have disturbed her conscience. This is even more the case if the perpetrator is related to their victim.

This was higher than the recorded cases of violence against women and children in 2019, which totaled 144 cases.

In 2021, Mawar Balqis WCC recorded 181 cases of violence against 196 women and children in Cirebon, 88 of which were cases of sexual violence. This was higher than the recorded cases of violence against women and children in 2019, which totaled 144 cases.

The perpetrators of violence included private employees, entrepreneurs, workers, students and civil servants. Sa’adah has also received personal threats that ranged from intimidating messages and phone calls, to countersuits and nonphysical threats. Some of her colleagues have even been threatened with curses.

At the same time, Sa’adah and her closest colleagues are just ordinary humans. After around 12 years of working with victims, she has started to feel emotionally exhausted. However, this is not because she has been threatened with curses or cowardly attempts at intimidation.

She is simply baffled by the recurrence of sexual violence. “Has what we’ve done had no effect on society? On the other hand, people have begun to speak up and report their cases,” she said.

But the fourth of nine children explains that she is still trying to help many people.

Her family is also worried. They constantly warn Sa’adah to be careful. She had experienced a miscarriage while she was handling a number of sexual violence cases. But the fourth of nine children explains that she is still trying to help many people.

Like her late father, who was also a teacher, Sa’adah wants to continue sharing her knowledge, especially about protecting women and children.

“In principle, as long as I’m able, I will carry on, wherever, [and] with whomever. We don’t know when these issues of violence might end,” she said.

Sa’adah

Born: Arjawinangun, Cirebon, 23 April 1978

Education: Academy of Foreign Languages, Yogyakarta (class of 2000)

Profession:

- Program manager, Mawar Balqis WCC

- Teacher, Mubtadiat Arjawinangun junior high school

- Teacher, Madrasah Aliyah Nusantara Arjawinangun senior high school

(This article was translated by Aris Prawira)