Kurniawati Hastuti Dewi. Indonesian Women and Local Politics: Islam, Gender and Networks in Post-Suharto Indonesia. Singapore: NUS Press in association with Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2015, xxi+246p.

Abstract

Indonesian Women and Local Politics: Islam, Gender and Networks in Post-Suharto IndonesiaKURNIAWATI HASTUTI DEWISingapore: NUS Press in association with Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2015, xxi+246p.Indonesia began its political reform almost 15 years ago following the collapse of Suharto's authoritarian administration in 1998. As in many other democratizing countries, increasing gender equality in government became an important reform agenda in Indonesia and greater democratic freedom and increased demand for gender equality were believed to move women's issues to the center of social policymaking. The newly democratic Indonesian government introduced Law No. 31/2002 on Political Parties and Law No. 12/2003 on General Elections, as part of an affirmative action policy which set quotas for women's representation. These two laws were later revised into Law No. 2/2008 and Law No. 10/2008 regulating women's wider participation in politics and obliging political parties to nominate at least one woman in every three candidates to run in legislative elections.To date, women's representation in the national legislature has increased from only 8.8% during the Suharto administration to 17.3% in 2014. This means there are now 97 women out of a total of 560 members in the national parliament. In addition, Law No. 32/2004 on Direct Elections has lifted structural barriers to women running for leadership positions in local elections. This Law has helped a number of women to become district Mayors (Regent), Vice Governors, and Governors. In Java, the most populated island in Indonesia, there were five women elected as Regent, one Vice-Governor, and one Governor as the result of the 2005 direct election (p. 18).Yet, regardless of the increase in women's representation in government, Indonesian women continue to receive unfair treatment and are discriminated against in many social policies and practices. To name a few, the introduction of sharia-based regional regulations in the Province of Aceh and in 52 districts and municipalities since 2001 has expanded discrimination against women and limited women's freedom of expression (Bush 2008, 176). Misogynist policies continue to be put in place. In 2013, the National Ulama Council (MUI), for example, supported the initiative of some Regents to require female students to undertake a virginity test in order to get into high schools (Kompas 2013). Meanwhile, Indonesia's Military and the National Police continue to require female candidates to pass virginity tests before joining (Russin 2015). It was only recently that Indonesia's Constitutional court rejected an application made by women activists to increase the marriageable age for girls from 16 years old, as stated in Article 7(1) of the 1974 Marriage Law, to 18 (Sciortino 2015). The legislative review was initiated due to the increasing risks of unwanted pregnancies, sexual disease, maternal health hazards, and violence as girls at the age of 16 are not mentally and physically ready to enter marriages. Women and human rights activists argue that this continuing discrimination against women is the result of many contributing factors, from Indonesia's misogynist socio-cultural tradition and poor gender-based policy making to a lack of women's representation in government.The issue of whether or not an increase in women's representation in government will lead to the advancement of women's issues, in fact, has become a subject of scholarly debate among political scientists. The debate centers on the role of democracy in improving women's access to political positions, thereby enabling the women elected to pass more women-friendly policies (Fallon et al. 2012). Researching women's representation in the legislature and its impact on advancing women's issues into women's friendly policies in the United States, Osborn (2012, 1, 6) argues that while many people expect women elected to public office to address women's policy concerns and represent women's needs, it is, in fact, political parties that work in shaping and influencing women legislators in addressing their agenda and producing policies that affect them positively. …