A Patch of Women's Human Rights

Dewi Anggraeni
an author and journalist

Earlier this month, to commemorate Human Rights Day (December 10), media and various organizations in Australia adopted a number of causes to highlight, one being domestic violence. In Queensland for example, a new taskforce aimed at reducing domestic violence incidents has been founded, chaired by no less than Dame Quentin Bryce, the most respected former governor-general of Australia. There have also been workshops training men not to bully their women. How efective endeavors such as these are going to be in the long run, is yet to be seen.

In the meantime, in Indonesia a friend finally found the courage to leave her husband after years of tolerating his violent behavior toward her, which also affected their two children. That however, did not end her troubles. Many of her friends, male and female, even some in her own family, regarded what she had done with various degrees of cynicism. Comments from, "He (her husband) is a well respected and well educated man, not the type who bashes up his wife. She must have done something terrible to deserve that," "She often defied him. What do you expect?", to "Well, she refused to give up her job. He felt neglected. No wonder he beat her up." So while my friend may have escaped direct physical violence, she will face a lot of mental hardships coming from expected and unexpected sources.