Muhammad Ammar Hidayahtulloh & Shelli Israelsen – Since the formal restoration of Timor-Leste's independence on 20 May 2002, the women's movement has evolved beyond the goal of national liberation to the struggle to secure an equal place for women in the new state.
Gender equality principles have been formally recognised in Timor-Leste over the past 24 years, with constitutional guarantees for gender equality, parliamentary quotas for women, the Law on Domestic Violence, the National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence, and the National Action Plan on Women and, Peace and Security counting among the key achievements of the women's movement in the post-independence period. But while important institutional gains have been achieved, an increase in gender-based violence (GBV), as well as continuing barriers to education, employment and equal pay for women and girls, lay bare the reality that deeper transformations in gender relations remain limited.
Our ongoing research into the work of three major Timorese women's organisations highlights how the women's movement confronts intersecting factors that constrain space for effective advocacy. The challenges, we observe, start with patriarchal legacies of the independence struggle, particularly an official memorialisation of the resistance that marginalises women's contributions and provides the ideological backdrop to a political scene dominated by male veterans of the resistance. Trends in international development policy, meanwhile, put pressure on women's organisations to depoliticise their activities, positioning them as adjunct to state and donor agendas. More recently, the deep inter-generational divides within Timorese society have also been felt inside the women's movement, as younger activists contest the position of established organisations. Yet at the same time, campaigns for justice for victims of sexual abuse have lately shown the potential for new alliances between veteran activists and the younger women who will carry forward their work forward.
East Timorese women's movement: past and present
The East Timorese women's movement has a long history of political mobilisation. During the occupation, the Popular Organisation of Timorese Women (Organizacao Popular de Mulheres Timorenses/OPMT), founded in 1975 as the women's wing of FRETILIN just before the Indonesian invasion, became a key vehicle for women's participation in the struggle for the "liberation of the homeland and the people" (liberta patria e liberta povu). Women actively contributed to the resistance movement as combatants, diplomats, and clandestine operatives.
Women's liberation was initially connected to the broader revolutionary struggle against Indonesian occupation. This changed in the early 1980s, when the Indonesian regime destroyed much of the resistance leadership. Under the leadership of Xanana Gusmao the resistance movement shifted its focus toward survival, sidelining earlier political programs aimed at women's emancipation.
The fall of Indonesia's authoritarian New Order regime in 1998 and the wave of democratisation that followed created new opportunities for the East Timorese resistance movement, both in the Indonesian archipelago and overseas, to fight for national liberation. Women's NGOs such as the East Timorese Women's Communication Forum (Forum Komunikasi untuk Perempuan Loro Sae/FOKUPERS) – founded in 1997 to support women victims of occupation-era human rights violations and gender-based violence – became active participants in the pro-independence campaign. Domestic and international pressures on Indonesia eventually led to the 1999 referendum on East Timor's future.
Following the successful vote for independence, the transitional period (1999-2002) under the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) saw women actively involved in national reconstruction and post-conflict development. In March 2000, a historic workshop in Dili brought together women from diverse backgrounds, including the diaspora, the church, political parties, and grassroots activists. The workshop resulted in the creation of the Women's Network of Timor-Leste (Rede Feto Timor-Leste/RFTL) by 11 women's organisations, including OPMT and FOKUPERS.
It was also from this workshop that the idea of holding the First National Congress of East Timorese Women emerged. Held in Dili in June 2000, the Congress brought together around 500 women from across Timor-Leste. Since then, the Congress has been held every four to five years, with the last Congress taking place on 17-21 December 2024. It provides a platform for women to discuss and address the most pressing issues that they faced, ranging from the economy and healthcare to human rights and reconciliation. The Congress produces a Platform of Action (PoA), which guides RFTL's advocacy for women's rights at both national and international levels.
Gendered valourisation of resistance
The legacy of the independence struggle has strongly shaped the political and social order of post-independence Timor-Leste in ways that sustain patriarchal ideas and practices. After the restoration of independence, the state institutionalised the valourisation of the resistance movement and its role in national liberation. Artcle 1, Section 11 of the Constitution acknowledges and values "the contribution of all those who fought for national independence". However, despite the Constitution's universal language, in practice the state's recognition of those contributions has been highly gendered.
"Fighting" is often narrowly understood as taking up arms, and this understanding has disregarded the everyday yet essential contributions made by women to sustain the resistance movement. The limited conception of what fighting constitutes renders East Timorese women victims rather than active participants in the liberation struggle. As such, women's historical role has been sidelined in both official narratives and state policies.
Source: https://www.newmandala.org/the-timorese-womens-movement-continues-the-struggle