She and Her Chronicle

By Helmi Dana B.A.

Born to be special and unique of all mankind, and even of all creatures, woman is
naturally human with all she has. Ironically, all gifts bestowed upon her does not entirely
prevent woman from being harassed by society. Over centuries, life of woman had never
been appreciated. Whatever she did would just end up being a talk amongst society. Living in
deplorable conditions, woman had to deal with all systems valued by society or else they
would be considered immoral.
Living a life as a woman might have been destined to be badly experiencing
something low-value since the Creation shaped up zillion times ago. Even the life of Eve, our
own great mother, had to be miserable because of a little mistake she made which brought us
to walk on earth. It is not earth on which we should stand right now but Garden of Eden, the
heaven, they say. Then, we, her descendants, are struggling for righteousness.
Maybe, you do not know a story about a group of Japanese soldiers entering an area
in China and raping all women there and killing those innocents back in early 20
th
century.
That is something unforgiveable and likely to be an element of the crime of genocide.
Womans dignity was not valued and there was a blur line about who the woman is.
She was enslaved by mens power and shut her voice out of democratic system in a country.
But all of the darkness, there are always heroic figures, say, heroines, struggling for womens
liberty and demanding their rights to be equalise just as that of men.
One of them is Kartini, the pioneer of womens movement in Indonesia. Her
genuineness portraying lives of women in this country provoked a movement called womens
emancipation which then successfully lit the spirit of women all over the country to be
feeling the same as what men did. Through her letters sent to her friend in Holland and later
on published in a book popularly entitled Out of the Dark Comes Light, Kartini managed to
make others, especially women to feel right about who they are.
Years after Kartinis death, her spirit remains amongst us, but does it mean that
woman is no longer discriminated? No, there are still traces of unfairness on this earth.
Growing as the same as the cities all over the world, those women who cannot survive have
to finally turn out to be working in brothels. They said they had no other choices.
Government, they say, does not care about them anymore and neither does society.
Their fragility has to go with all mockery they get from people whom never care
about their lives. Its frustrating to live as woman either in the old days or even now.