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Violence Against Women
Rises in Indonesia
Violence against women in Indonesia has steadily
increased after nearly a decade of political reform, the Jakarta Post
quoted the National Commission for Women's Protection as saying
Saturday.
State institutions both in central and regional governments were among
the main perpetrators through their discriminatory regulations, the
report said.
Violence has increased despite the fact that the government has enacted
10 laws and signed three regional treaties to eliminate all forms of
violence against women.
In a report on the state of women's protection issued in conjunction
with the International Women's Day, the commission highlighted 27
regional bylaws which it says discriminate against women, either through
the criminalization of women or seeking to control women's bodies.
"For example, there's a regulation that forbids women from going
out at night or others that determine how women should dress, "
commissioner Arimbi Heroepoetri said.
She said that under these regulations women could easily be labeled, and
punished, as "immoral" women simply because they went home
late at night or wore tight clothes.
Tangerang municipality near Jakarta last year issued an ordinance
banning women from going outside of their homes after 10 p.m.
According to Arimbi, there has been a significant increase in the number
of cases of domestic violence reported thanks to the law, which
categorizes all acts of violence against women as criminal.
She said the sharpest increase in the number of reported cases of
domestic violence occurred in 2005, with 16,615 reported cases, or
almost four times the 4,310 cases reported in 2004.
2008-03-17 |
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