Ronna Nirmala – Oppressive laws adopted since the fall of Suharto are threatening to erode long-held women's rights, activists warned on Wednesday.
Maria Farida Indrati, a Constitutional Court justice, said that since the onset of reform and regional autonomy, more women were finding themselves "in adverse situations as a result of regulations, treatment by men and other factors."
She said discrimination often occurred because of bylaws and regulations issued by conservative regional administrations. "Our diversity is being erased by these laws," Maria said.
She cited the cases of Aceh province and the city of Padang in West Sumatra, where the respective administrations had made it mandatory for all female Muslim civil servants to wear an Islamic headscarf during work hours.
"Customary laws may be applied under the principle of regional autonomy, but they should be contingent on the individual," she said. "Faith is a personal affair."
Maria was speaking at a seminar on women's rights in the reform era, hosted by the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan).
Erma Suryani, a researcher from the State Islamic Institute (IAIN) in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, told the seminar there had also been an increase in the number of women entering common-law marriages, thus being deprived of key rights afforded to those in a state-recognized marriage.
"It's absolutely detrimental to their rights once they get divorced by their husbands," she said. "They have a hard time claiming custody of their children or spousal support."
Yanu, an activist with the Yogyakarta Indonesian Family Planning Association (PKBI), said that from her experience in the field, society seemed to be taking an increasingly conservative view of women.
"We often see cases where Christian women or those from other minority religions have to wear a veil to a community gathering or face a hostile reception, even outright rejection," she said.
Masruchah, deputy chairwoman of Komnas Perempuan, said women should not stay silent in the face of such discriminatory practices.
"If there's something wrong that happens to a woman, she has to tell it to the people around her," she said. "That helps prevent others from propagating the same behavior against women."
She added that cowing before discrimination would only make the situation worse.