On Wednesday 19th of October, He For She goes to Campus came to Universitas Gadjah Mada. Simponi coordinated the event; which comprised of performing a mixture of their own music and covers related to gender equality and violence against women. Each of the four band members spoke on the facts and figures surrounding gender inequality in Indonesia and globally and some spoke from personal experience, for one band member he witnessed gender inequality in Indonesian society coming from a single parent family, he witness his mother being marginalized and ridiculed for her position.
As the event was all spoken in bahasa Indonesia, it was rather difficult for me at times to follow, the power points were a huge help but when it turned into group discussion, I missed a lot of it. Luckily I had Rara there to help me out and it was fantastic when she translated for me a very interesting segment where they asked for five female and five male volunteers from the audience. They came up to the front and were asked to read a list of statements to themselves and if they agreed they would remain standing at the front and read the statements aloud to the audience and if they did not agree they were asked to sit back down. Seven people sat down and one woman and two men remained standing. These three then read the statements aloud to the audience. From what I understood and what was translated for me, the statements all supported a movement towards a gender-just society through joint cooperation of both females and males. However, there was one sentence about the role of a woman to dress politely and appropriately in order to protect herself from potential gender-based remarks or attacks. From my personal perspective I found this quite shocking, this idea of victim blaming, and reversing the shame and blame onto a raped woman for example, saying because she wore a specific clothing item it was her fault she was raped.
However, I think it is fantastic that events like that of ‘He For She; goes to Campus are a fantastic place where individuals can come, share ideas and perspectives, ask questions and together understand what it would mean for Indonesia to continuously aim for and achieve a gender-just society, one that does not tolerate violence against women and one that empowers both men and women to know their equal value. As a foreign attendee of this event it was extremely empowering to see such positive momentum building against gender inequality in Indonesia. To hear the crowds disapproval and despair when hearing facts about the rates of domestic violence in Indonesia and their high spirits to really make a change in their communities, their universities, their country was incredible.
Author: Emma Hardy, Student Intern Monash University Australia, Faculty of Arts, International Studies
