Nurfika Osman – The number of women in the country who reported experiencing physical and sexual abuse in 2008 was double that of the year before as more and more women became aware of their rights and reported their cases to police, a discussion heard on Monday.

Ninik Rahayu, vice commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, or Komnas Perempuan, said that there were 25,552 abuse cases involving women reported in 2007 and the figure jumped to 54,425 in 2008.

"Women are starting to realize they have certain rights. This is one reason for the significant rise in reported cases," Rahayu said. "But the actual number of cases must be much higher as most women do not report abuse," she said, adding that 80 percent of the abuse reported was due to domestic violence.

She said that the empirical data was obtained from 215 of Komnas Perempuan's partners in 32 provinces around the country, with the capital Jakarta topping the list for reported cases of abuse.

"Jakarta had more than 10,000 cases of abuse in 2008, followed by Central Java with some 5,000 cases and then East Java," she said, adding that the number of reported incidents stood at 22,512 in 2006 and 20,391 in 2005.

The discussion also said that the stigmatization of women as evil temptresses was so ingrained in society that it made women hesitant to seek justice.

In and out of court, society, the discussion said, always threw up questions like "What kind of dress did the woman wear?" or "What did she look like?" or "That woman is so flirtatious it's no wonder she was raped."

"Society is told that women are like the devil – able to seduce men into abusing them – and even women have come to believe the abuse is somehow their fault," Rahayu said. "This has to stop, women are the victims here."

Artha Theresia, a judge from South Jakarta District Court, said that women could lodge a civil claim if they failed in a criminal court. "Women can lodge a civil claim if the perpetrator is let off in a criminal trial," Artha said. "We can push the abusers to compensate the woman for her injuries."

However, she said, no woman had ever lodged a civil claim because she would be made to feel "worse than a whore" if she accepted compensation.

"Women are reluctant to demand their rights as most of them have been made submissive by society," she said. "They need to be more active and stand up for their rights until they get the justice they deserve."

Sri Nurherwati from APIK Legal Aid Institute said that society, especially women, should change their minds about compensation. "If they get Rp 10 or 20 million they should accept it as their right," she said. "Never think that their virginity, for example, has been bought for money."