Johannes Nugroho – Today marks the 132nd anniversary of the birth of Raden Ajeng Kartini, Indonesia's most celebrated feminist. Kartini's ideas were radically avant garde at a time when women were seen as subservient to men. This Kartini Day, two figures perhaps best summarize the state of women's emancipation in our country: the hitherto unknown Almira Safa Adinda and the notorious Inong Malinda Dee.

The late Almira was an 18-month-old girl from Surabaya who was recently tortured to death by her own father, who complained that the infant had been too noisy. The most disturbing confession came when he confirmed his wife's allegation that he had been disappointed with Almira's birth because he had wanted a boy.

Kartini once wrote bitterly how girls were seen as not equal to boys in her days. Today, it would appear that community consensus on that score has not altered radically. Most Indonesian families would consider a son to be preferable to a daughter, and even the 2010 census revealed that there are more males than females in the country now.

In a largely patrilineal society like Indonesia, a son is a surer bet toward ensuring the survival of the patronym, as well as the family's fortunes staying within the same "name." Compounded with the prevalent moral values biased against women, it is also assumed to be more difficult to bring up girls. A boy who loses his virginity before marriage is simply considered naughty while a girl in the same shoes is a disgrace to the family and religion.

Conservative religious mores in the country continue to undermine women's emancipation. During the presidency of Megawati Sukarnoputri, Muslim clerics were often publicly quoted as saying that female leadership is un-Islamic.

Her presidency was also marred by persistent rumors that the real power behind the throne was her husband Taufik Kiemas. Irrespective of the truth of the matter, in portraying her as such the echo of the stereotypical weak and subjugated Indonesian woman was too strong to ignore. It was as if the country could not possibly believe that a woman could rule the country on her own terms.

Comparatively, there were similar rumors about former President Suharto's own wife, Madame Tien, alleged to influence her husband in state matters behind closed doors. Although this depiction of Madame Tien suggests that she was a co-ruler, it still strengthens the taboo for women to be visibly influential. In the Indonesian psyche, it is permissible for women to be cleverer than their husbands, as long as they do not tell the world as such.

While Megawati's own tenure was unremarkable, history has indeed recorded a number of outstanding female achievements in politics. Figures such as the Majapahit Queen Regnant Tribuana Tunggadewi, the Demak female ruler Ratu Kalimanyat and the Acehnese freedom fighter Tjoet Nyak Dien are a testimony that, given the same chance and encouragement, Indonesian women have always been capable of leadership.

Ratu Kalimanyat of Jepara, incidentally the same town Kartini was born in, is an especially special case because Demak was a Muslim sultanate. Ratu was such an accomplished ruler that she managed to hold back Demak's decline due to European encroachments.

Almost mythically, women are also seen as less productive than men, and yet it is this exact prejudice that acts against women in the workforce. This brings us to Inong Malinda Dee, who, before the frauds she committed came to the surface, was an archetype of a successful modern Indonesian woman.

With income that could compete even with the richest male executives, Malinda was indeed a masterful female player in a masculine field. Going as far as augmenting her physique to become the big-busted sexy woman she has come to be known as, Malinda instinctively knew that her sexuality, rather than her skills alone, was her advantage when pursuing grace and favors from powerful and rich male tycoons.

Her life story alone tells us the degree of unorthodoxy of means that an ordinary woman in Indonesia must employ to become liberated, at least financially. Nevertheless, even the resourceful Malinda can never hope to unshackle herself from the strength of prejudice against women in our society. Her controversial marriage to a man decades her junior is almost the perfect solution for a woman of her stature could hope for.

To be married to a man of the same stature as herself would almost certainly mean having to forsake her own career and thus her independence. So, she opted for a man much younger than herself who would become her dependent rather than vice versa.

In her own way, even the criminal Malinda is a Kartini, a woman trying to make her way through a male-dominated society. So was little Almira, who, partly due to the discrimination against her own gender, would never witness the world and its ways. Kartini undoubtedly regretted how much she had to compromise her ideals to an unmerciful society. Sadly, if she were alive today, she would still find herself unable to realize her old ideals again, even after 132 years.

[Johannes Nugroho is a writer based in Surabaya.]