From A Civil Servant’s Daughter to An Underground Activist

Suharti Sumodiwirjo, more familiarly known as Umi Sardjono, was born to a Javanese civil servant family. Kartini’s collection of letters was an influence to Umi and led her to join pre-independence organizations.

Isma Savitri

October 4, 2021

“I ALREADY had great aspirations when I was in school, I didn’t want to become a wife. At the time, I wanted to fight for women’s rights the way Kartini did,” Umi Sardjono told Ruth Indiah Rahayu, head of the Education Division of IndoProgress Institute for Social Research and Education, in early 2000s.

According to Ruth, this admission showed that Umi already had the desire to promote women’s rights since a young a

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