I have been working at Uninetwork @asia team since this year. Though my experience here is short, I have heard a lot of stories about women, not far from now, oppressed and controlled just because they were born as women, and their protests. One day, an idea occurred to me that when all of those stories – like pieces of jigsaw puzzle – are assembled based on their amazing similarities, they may make a great picture of women in Asia.
When I actually started out assembling, however, I found that just some hazy ideas drifted in my mind. It could be because I only had a few pieces of the puzzle in my hands. It might be impossible in the first place to paint Asia and its vast time and space on a single canvas.
Nonetheless, I’d like to share ideas from our meeting with many Asian feminists and it would not be a bad idea to do some drawings, though rough, for better picture in the process. Not for a big perfect painting, but for some drawings that are left to be painted down the road.
Drawing 1 / Asian value, Religious fundamentalism and Family
In Asia, cultural rules and regulations have an unsavory link to anti-Western arguments or Islamic fundamentalism, amid which the body of Asian women becomes a place where the ‘Asian value’ is inscribed.
The term ‘Asian value’, opposite to ‘Western value’, was in fashion particularly during the 1980s in Singapore and Malaysia. While ‘Western value’ is described as evil, disorderly, unorganized, criminal, sexually indulged, and individualistic, ‘Eastern value’ represents good, purity, order, peace, sexual morality and collectivism.
The Malaysian and Singapore government have blamed ‘westernization’ for the main cause of their social crisis, promoting ‘Asian value of family ties’. What is important is that in the process the two governments viewed that women had to play their traditional role as a mother in their family. As Islamic fundamentalism wields great power in Malaysia, in particular, Malay women have been in control by Muslim family regulations.
Asian women have constantly struggled against oppression and violence they face in their lives, especially in their marriage and family relationships, which are often described as uniquely ‘Asian’. Singapore’s AWARE(Association of Women for Action and Research) has raised issues of rape by husband. The group released a report on marital rape and its seriousness in 2007 winter.
In Malaysia, SIS(Sister in Islam), a NGO of Muslim women working on ‘Islam feminism’, resisted conservative and fundamentalist interpretation of Koran and demanded Islam family laws be revised. SIS claimed women’s right to marry only with their own recognition and to divorce. The organization released a study in 2004 stating that Islam, in fact, did not encourage polygamy.
Expectedly, in both countries, sexuality outside marriage is severely condemned and attacked. Singaporeans say ‘sarong party girls’ to describe women who are in their 20s wearing very short skirt in ‘sarong’ style and enjoy parties with foreign men. They are particularly blamed in that they are not seeking stable relationship or marriage and hang out with foreign men, not Singaporean men.
Drawing 2 / Modernization and Nationalist control
From the moment when many Asian countries began to build national economic development plans, women and their reproductive ability have drawn under control.
Indonesia is one of the countries most broadly and actively exercising national control over women. The country enacted a new law in 1974 setting a minimum age for marriage, which was the achievement of feminist activism in Indonesia. But, at the same time, the change was part of the government’s plan to limit birth rate.
In the same year, the Indonesian government instituted ‘Women’s Participation for National Development Act’, a new law defining women’s due role and responsibility to take for ‘economic development’, and made two watch dog agencies : Dharma Wanita and PKK. Those measures ultimately demanded women to be cooperative in birth control and responsible for their role as mother (Ibu) committed to development of their family and region by practicing disciplined sexuality.
What is interesting is that ‘mother(Ibu)’, an Indonesian symbol, at times worked as an emblem for women’s protest against the government and a foundation for feminism movement. Suara Ibu Peduli(Caring mothers’ voice), a women’s group born in February in 1998 when the whole Asia region was staggering hit by a financial crisis, was founded voluntarily to provide food and milk for children in inner cities suffering from poverty. At first it simply began to supply milk, but soon it turned into a food center and later a small commodity shop. Finally it became a form of a cooperative union, where people could borrow money. As the economic crisis aggravated and domestic violence increased, the group raised an issue of ‘domestic violence’, which had never been brought up in Indonesia, and conducted counseling for wife-beating men. As the number of the members reached to four thousands, the government found it threatening and mobilized male public officials to persuade women to withdraw from the group.
Drawing 3 / Violence and Taboo on Women’s Body
Women too often come across victimized female body images in their routine but have very few places to talk about their own body experiences or feelings. Naturally, women readily internalize taboos and disgust against their body while having little chance to feel respect or love for their body.
‘Reclaim the night’ march is common in many Asian countries raising issues of violence against women’s body. When a woman walking down the street at night gets attacked, absurdly enough, she is turned into a cause of the accident not a victim. The night march is a meaningful action as it criticizes the wrong practice of holding women responsible for violence against women and reclaims women’s right to their body and movements.
In the case of Korean, Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center(KSVRC) led several night marches from 1991 to 1996 with different names like ‘Reclaim the night’, ‘Night goblin, Day goblin’. Feminist organizations in Seoul area including Uninet, KSVRC, Korean Womenlink, Seoul Women’s Hot Line, Female Students’ Association of Soongsil University, Female Students’ Association of Younsei University, Female Students’ Association of Korea University and Kwanak Solidarity of Femnists formed ‘night march organizing committee’ and held the first reclaim the night march on August 13th in 2004. The first march with a slogan “Under the moonlight, women reclaim the night” raised issues of sexual assault on women lurking everywhere in society and the attitude of Korean society to blame women for the assault, upon an appalling crimes by a serial killer Yoo Young-chul. Statements, guerilla protests, flash mobs followed. Since then, moonlight march is held every year to reclaim women’s right and oppose to violence against women.
In Taiwan, as Peong Wanru, a mainstay of feminism movement, was killed on her way home at night on Nov. 30th in 1996, the feminist groups conducted major marches named “Women’s rights light up the night street on Dec. 21th.” With this as a momentum, many safety laws for women were legislated. Yet, the culprit of the murder has not been arrested.
In India, “Pink chaddi(Pink undies in English)” have been conducting campaigns based on the website ‘thepinkchaddicampaign.blogspot.com’. The group gathered stories from women attacked while walking down the street or on the wheel and disclosed them on its website with the time and street name on a map. “Fearless Karnataka” fighting against attack on women was made on the basis of this group. Fearless Karnataka did a street performance on the streets in Bangalore marking woman’s day on March 8th in 2009. They distributed fliers and conducted survey. From 9 p.m. in Banapa park, they played films, displayed posters and sang songs.
Many women feel hopeless, ashamed and mute about their everyday experiences of the body. In particular, menstruation is often regarded as preliminary period to conception and something secret or filthy. One of the outcries against this kind of taboo is Menstruation festival in Korea. The festival has been held every year for the last 10 years. The 1st festival was organized and held by young feminists in Seoul on September 10th in 1999, in a bid to talk heart to heart about menstruation, which has never been openly talked. The festival included performances full of power, video clips and speeches on menstruation.
I must confess that the three drawings above are not parallel and each of the drawings seems eccentric that would not fit into one picture. Actually, I have been desperate to meet and hear directly from those fighting about what was exactly going on in what context. Hopefully, it will be possible to revise and paint these drawings in the process we meet and talk one another as women ‘in Asia’.
jaru