Afghan women are accusing the Taliban of using a pregnant New Zealand journalist as a publicity tool to show the world they can offer women rights.

Charlotte Bellis wrote an open letter on Sunday saying she had been rejected by New Zealand’s strict hotel quarantine system and was living in Afghanistan, where the Taliban had offered her “safe haven”.

Bellis was working in Qatar, where extramarital sex is illegal, when she discovered she was pregnant with her partner and realised she had to leave.

• READ MORE: ‘A betrayal’: Coverage of pregnant reporter ‘helped by Taliban’ is called out
• Pregnant NZ journalist Charlotte Bellis offered a place in MIQ
• Charlotte Bellis talks to Fox News about the pregnancy and the Taliban
• I’m appalled at the way the Charlotte Bellis situation has played out – John MacDonald
• How long will the stench of MIQ hang over NZ? Foreign media seized on Charlotte Bellis saga, but harm to NZ’s reputation will fade – Damien Venuto
• Muzhgan Samarqandi: MIQ debate trivialises the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan
• The Reporter Without Borders: In a war zone and a pandemic, who gets to pull strings? – Rafia Zakaria
• Charlotte Bellis’ open letter on MIQ to New Zealand – New Zealand Herald

When she was unable to go home to New Zealand, she briefly moved to her partner’s native Belgium, but could not stay long because she was not a resident.

She said the only other place the couple had visas to live was Afghanistan.

“When the Taliban offers you – a pregnant, unmarried woman – safe haven, you know your situation is messed up,” she wrote.

It made international headlines, but the news prompted scepticism in online groups of Afghan women, Kabul resident Sodaba Noorai said.

‘Surprised’ by Taliban comments
Noorai said Afghan women “were surprised” when they heard the news that senior Taliban contacts had told the journalist she would be fine if she returned to Afghanistan.

The Fox News interview on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the New Zealand government offered Bellis a place in managed isolation and quarantine, four days after her article was published and a spate of media reports followed.

“[Afghan women] were surprised the Taliban can treat women in a good manner and know how to respect them,” Noorai said.

“The Taliban is trying to convey the message that they know about human rights, especially women’s rights.

“But in reality their treatment of Afghan women is different to their support and respect for this New Zealand woman.”

Noorai said pregnant Afghan women had been killed by the Taliban for not being married.

Witnesses claim pregnant former Afghan policewoman Banu Negar was shot dead by Taliban militants in September, but the regime has denied the incident.

‘Double standard’ over white, Western woman
“This is a double standard where they treat a white, Western woman in a way to show the world that they are behaving like a civilised government,” Pittsburgh University Afghan researcher Dr Omar Sadr said.

“But with respect to the people of Afghanistan and the women of Afghanistan, the Taliban behave totally differently.

“At the moment, Afghan women are degraded as second-class citizens, deprived of fundamental human rights where their protesting is brutally suppressed.

“They are killed, tortured, and in some cases even raped.”

It has been almost six months since the militant group took over Afghanistan, and its treatment of women has become a central point of concern for the international community.

Women live in fear under Taliban rule
Women say they live in fear, while others have been killed after protesting against the country’s new rulers.

Afghan activist Rahimi, whose last name has been withheld for security reasons, said she had gone into hiding with her sisters because she was worried she would be arrested and tortured by the Taliban for attending protests over human rights.

“I no longer have a job so I’m in a bad economic situation, I attended many demonstrations for achieving our rights and my life is in danger by the Taliban,” she said.

“We’re afraid of their violence, their rape, their killing and murder, so we’re scared in our house.

“I have a request for the international community — don’t ignore the actions of the Taliban because of this case of this New Zealand journalist.”

Taliban negotiators travelled to Oslo, Norway last week, the regime’s first official overseas delegation since returning to power in August.

Humanitarian aid offered
US and European diplomats reportedly offered humanitarian aid in exchange for an improvement in human rights.

The Taliban is calling for almost $10 billion in assets frozen by the US and other Western countries to be released, as more than half of Afghans are now facing extreme levels of hunger.

“It is fundamental that we hold the Taliban accountable by their policies and actions on the ground rather than what they do in exceptional cases like Charlotte’s,” Dr Sadr said.

But women like Noorai have urged the international community to stand firm until all women in Afghanistan, not just foreigners, are given basic rights.

“Our message is to not recognise the Taliban until they really change themselves and treat us properly.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the Taliban to provide immediate guarantees for the freedom and safety of women journalists in Afghanistan, where a new media landscape is emerging from which they are missing.

This is in spite of Taliban assurances that press freedom would be respected and women journalists would be allowed to keep working.

The Taliban has announced an all-male caretaker government three weeks after taking over Kabul and the move has been criticised by UN Women as sending “the wrong signal” for a promised inclusive administration.

• READ MORE: UN agency decries exclusion of women from government
• How I left Afghanistan, with a Taliban escort to the airport
• Other Afghanistan reports

What with incidents involving Afghan women journalists since the Taliban takeover on August 15 and orders to respect Islamic laws, an RSF investigation has established that fewer than 100 women journalists are still formally working in privately-owned radio and TV stations in the Afghan capital.

According to a survey by RSF and its partner organisation, the Centre for the Protection of Afghan Women Journalists (CPAWJ), Kabul had 108 media outlets with a total of 4940 employees in 2020.

They included 1080 female employees, of whom 700 were journalists.

Of the 510 women who used to work for eight of the biggest media outlets and press groups, only 76 (including 39 journalists) are still currently working.

Disappearing from Kabul
In other words, women journalists are in the process of disappearing from the capital.

“Taliban respect for the fundamental right of women, including women journalists, to work and to practice their profession is a key issue,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

“Women journalists must be able to resume working without being harassed as soon as possible, because it is their most basic right, because it is essential for their livelihood, and also because their absence from the media landscape would have the effect of silencing all Afghan women.

“We urge the Taliban leadership to provide immediate guarantees for the freedom and safety of women journalists.”

Most women journalists have been forced to stop working in the provinces, where almost all privately-owned media outlets ceased operating as the Taliban forces advanced.

A handful of these women journalists are still more or less managing to work from home, but there is no comparison with 2020, when the survey by RSF and the CPAWJ established that more than 1700 women were working for media outlets in three provinces (the provinces of Kabul, Herat and Balkh, in the east, west and north of the country).

The illusion of normality lasted only a few days. Forty-eight hours after the Taliban took control of the capital, women reporters with privately-owned TV channels such as Tolonews, Ariana News, Kabul News, Shamshad TV and Khurshid TV had dared to resume talking on the air and going out to cover events.

Media executives harassed
But media executives quickly found that they were being harassed. Nahid Bashardost, a reporter for the independent news agency Pajhwok, was beaten by Taliban while doing a report near Kabul airport on 25 August.

Other tearful women journalists described how Taliban guards stationed outside their media prevented them from going out to cover stories.

Women journalists speaking on the air in the studio are tolerated almost as little as they are reporting in the field.

A woman journalist working for a radio station in the southeastern province of Ghazni said that, two days after the Taliban took control of her province, they visited the station and warned: “You are a privately-owned radio station. You can continue, but without any woman’s voice and without music.”

It is the same in Kabul. A Taliban has replaced a female anchor at state-owned Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), who was told to “stay at home for a few days.”

Another female anchor was denied entry to the building. RTA employed 140 women journalists until mid-August.

Now, none of them dares to go back to work at the state TV channels, which are now under Taliban control.

Stay-at-home advice
Executives and editors with privately-owned media outlets that have not already decided to stop operating confirm that, under pressure, they have advised their women journalist to stay at home.

Zan TV (Dari for “Woman TV”) and Bano TV (Dari for “Mrs TV”) have ceased all activity since August 15.

These two privately owned TV channels employed 35 and 47 women journalists, respectively.

One of these journalists said: “It was the perfect job for me. I wanted to help women. Now I don’t know if I will ever be able to go back to work.”

Deprived of her job and salary, she now faces the prospect of extreme economic hardship, like many other women journalists.

Despite undertakings from Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid that women would be able to “return to work in a few days,” no measure to this effect has been announced, forcing hundreds of women journalists to stay at home, dreading an uncertain future.

On August 24, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said: “A fundamental red line will be the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls, and respect for their rights to liberty, freedom of movement, education, self-expression and employment, guided by international human rights norms.”

Afghanistan was ranked 122nd out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index that RSF published in April.

Asia Pacific Report collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

Seventeen women journalists from the Asia-Pacific region gathered in the Victorian capital of Melbourne this week to work on an empowerment strategy for reporting on gender-based violence against women.

Organised by the Canadian-based Centre for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), the workshop on gender-based violence against women (GBVAW) at Monash University was a key step toward ensuring better collaboration with the media.

The media plays a vital role in influencing the attitudes toward gender-based violence, especially in environments where the development of women and girls is overlooked.

Within the Asia-Pacific region, a common thread is the vulnerability of women and girls in the face of gender inequality and sociocultural norms identified by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).

From Papua New Guinea to the Philippines, putting gender-based violence into context remains a challenge in terms of recognising women’s rights as human rights.

The Rutgers University-based centre has been instrumental in raising awareness of the issue through its 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign.

It has recognised the need for journalists in different spaces to be well informed and equipped on covering the issue.

Support needed
The centre says journalists need support when it comes to reporting challenges such as data, resources and logistics, newsroom culture, and state accountability.

Throughout the two-day workshop, journalists shared their experiences in reporting gender-based violence against women and highlighted the gaps that could be filled in their countries.

News framing of survivors was stressed as essential toward changing a culture of victim-blaming.

Women journalists themselves are vulnerable when covering stories on gender-based violence.

Although strategies on improving gender-based violence coverage are still a work in progress, the centre’s workshop provided a needed forum for Asia-Pacific journalists.

Papua New Guinean television journalist Quintina Naime found suggestions in the workshop about improving reporting on gender-based violence especially helpful.

Passionate reporting
“Coming from a country with diverse cultures and where domestic violence has become a norm, I’m privileged to have met other influential female journalists who are passionate about reporting on gender-based violence issues affecting the most vulnerable in society,” she says.

“I’m encouraged that my contribution will contribute to the professional development and networking opportunities of journalists reporting on the issues. I’m privileged to have represented Papua New Guinea and PNGTV.”

Other countries represented in the consultation were Australia, Fiji, Indonesia, New Zealand, Philippines and Samoa.

The centre will continue to convene with journalists from other regions to improve reporting of gender-based violence against women and to hopefully change attitudes.

The centre has already hosted workshops in the South Asia and Middle East regions.

It is hoped that the dialogue emerging from all these workshops will help develop a tool or guideline that will assist journalists in tackling the issues.

Pauline Mago-King is a masters student at Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre researching gender-based violence issues in Papua New Guinea. She was a participant in the gender-based violence against women workshop.

To mark International Women’s Day tomorrow, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is publishing a report entitled “Women’s rights: Forbidden subject” which sheds light on the difficulties that journalists – both women and men – can encounter when they cover women’s rights.

Covering women’s rights does not come without risks for reporters.

RSF has established that from 2012 to 2017, the rights of at least 90 journalists in around 20 countries were seriously violated because they dared to cover or talk about women’s rights or gender issues.

Several months of research has yielded the following chilling breakdown of these cases:

• 11 of these journalists were murdered,
• 12 were imprisoned,
• at least 25 were physically attacked, and
• at least 40 others were or are still being threatened on social networks.

Gunned down
In India, Gauri Lankesh, the editor of the secular and feminist weekly Gauri Lankesh Patrike, paid with her life for articles that criticised the woman’s place in the caste system.

She was gunned down on September 5, 2017.

In Iran, many feminist journalists have been subjected to judicial harassment and imprisonment in connection with their writing.

They include Mansoureh Shojaee, who now lives in exile, and Narges Mohammadi, who is still detained.

However, it is not just women journalists who are persecuted by the enemies of women’s rights.

‘Fake news’ charge
In Somalia, Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim was arrested and sentenced to a year in prison on a fake news charge after he interviewed a rape victim.

“Journalists should not have to risk their lives in order to cover women’s rights in 2018 but unfortunately they do in many parts of the world,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

“In this report, we show how press freedom’s predators obstruct investigative reporting and coverage of women’s rights by journalists, both men and women.

“And we offer very clear recommendations for ensuring that both halves of humanity enjoy the right to equal treatment by the media everywhere, without which we cannot talk of journalistic freedom and pluralism.”

Predators with many faces
Who are the people who prey on women and journalists? RSF’s report initially identifies extremist religious groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State.

In the United States, journalists who cover abortion rights receive death threats from pro-life groups.

Criminal organisations often seek to silence reporters. In Mexico, covering the many murders of women in the northern state of Chihuahua is particularly risky.

Authoritarian regimes – led by those in China, Turkey, and Egypt – are also opposed to letting women’s issues become a subject of public debate.

In France, Canada, and many other countries, hordes of enraged internet users unleash cyber-harassment campaigns against journalists. When the victims are women, the attacks become even more virulent and usually acquire a sexual dimension.

In response to the persecution, some reporters have had no choice but to flee into exile, some have stopped reporting, and others have chosen to resist.

In this report, RSF pays tribute to all of these journalists and offers recommendations to governments, international organisations, online platforms, and news organisations so that women’s rights are no longer regarded as a taboo subject and journalists who want to cover this issue can do so freely.

Reporters Without Borders is a Paris-based media freedom watchdog. Pacific Media Watch works close with RSF.

• More gender articles

Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop sought a court order to stop the burial of a journalist until a proper post-mortem has been conducted on her, reports The National.

Her burial was halted this morning after the last relative objecting to a post-mortem – her mother – agreed, reports Loop PNG.

Her body was taken back to the funeral parlour last night under instructions by investigating police homicide unit detectives and latest reports said the result of the post-mortem would be known tomorrow.

READ MORE: Funeral of Post-Courier journalist overshadowed by abuse allegations

Her paternal family had also sought a post-mortem, reports said.

Rosalyn Albaniel Evara, 41, was business editor of the PNG Post-Courier newspaper until she died on Sunday, October 15.

Her death has unleashed a wave of anger over violence against women in Papua New Guinea.

The front pages of Papua New Guinea’s two daily newspapers contrasted today with The National splashing Evara’s death on the front page while the late journalist’s own newspaper, the Post-Courier, featured a curtainraiser on the Kumuls for their Rugby League World Cup opener in Port Moresby next Saturday.

This sparked an ex-PNG Media Council president Alex Rheeney, who is also a former chief editor of the Post-Courier, to condemn his old newspaper on social media.

Writing in The Pacific Newsroom, Rheeney said in a bitter commentary directed at the Post-Courier:

“Halo, she was your employee and one of the best – if not the best – until the end. All employers have a duty of care to their employees and the Post-Courier continues to fail by not seeking justice for their business editor Rosalyn Albaniel Evara and giving editorial prominence to the issue from the date of her death.

“The newspaper failed to get to the bottom of the death of the esteemed journalist, and my former colleague, when she passed on … October 15, leaving that responsibility [to] close friends and family.

“In today’s edition you choose to belittle the memory of one of Papua New Guinea’s top journalist by running stories and pictures on her funeral service yesterday on Page 16, unlike The National which did well by giving the issue front page coverage.

“As a former chief editor of the newspaper, I am shocked and disgusted at the management’s failure to give editorial prominence to the issue and be proactive in relation to the death of Rosalyn and push for a full investigation into her shocking death, as a responsible employer.

“Where is the empathy to and for Papua New Guinean professionals who contribute to your annual profits?”

Current Post-Courier editor Todagia Kelola defended his newspaper’s decision to carry the report of the funeral well inside the newspaper, saying it was an issue of “the angle” for the news.

The newspaper had taken an editorial decision to focus on the funeral rather than the allegations around her death, he told Loop PNG.

In a separate statement, he claimed the funeral had been “hijacked” over the allegations.

The Minister for Youth, Religion and Community Development, Soroi Eoe, condemned Evara’s death and joined Parkop’s call on authorities to investigate the allegations.

“I condemn such death in the strongest terms based on the allegations of late Mrs Evara being a victim of gender based violence. Again the matter is serious and must be dealt with accordingly.”

Injury marks on body
At her funeral service at the Rev Sione Kami Memorial Church in Port Moresby yesterday, The National reports, her aunt, Mary Albaniel, showed to the crowd images of her body with injury marks on it.

“The images were shown on a screen inside the church,” the newspaper said.

“Mary Albaniel wore an orange t-shirt with the words: ‘No to violence against women’ on the back. She told the congregation that her niece had been a victim of violence.”

The National reported that the images showed that Evara had injuries to several parts of her body.

A death certificate from the Port Moresby General Hospital showed that Evara, 41, was rushed the hospital after she had collapsed that afternoon. She was reported to have been suffering from headaches the previous day.

Governor Parkop last night was working with police homicide unit at Boroko and the coroner to get a court order to stop her planned burial today at the 9-Mile Cemetery outside Port Moresby until a proper post-mortem was conducted to confirm the cause of her death.

‘Mere allegations’
Parkop, a strong advocate of ending violence against women, said he had called up the newspaper but was told that claims of violence instituted on her by someone close to her were “mere allegations”.

“I will follow up to find out the truth,” Parkop said.

“I am determined that there must be [a] prosecution if the allegation is true.”

Overseas media were yesterday also chasing up the story of her death.

A police homicide officer at the Boroko police station confirmed with The National last night that they were working on the case with Parkop.

Evara’s mother Ella Albaniel, a former principal of Lae School of Nursing, told The National that she was against the idea of a post-mortem although her daughter could have died from injuries, The National reported.

Evara completed Grade 12 at the Aiyura National High School in Eastern Highlands in 1993.

She spent two years at Divine World University where she graduated in 1995 with a Diploma in Communication Arts.

She worked with Word Publishing until about 2002 when she joined the Post-Courier.

Evara was based in Lae, Madang and Port Moresby.

• Pacific Media Watch report
• More PNG news stories

Pacific — and global — feminists are facing challenging times this week in New York with efforts to squeeze out NGO access to United Nations negotiations.

“Pacific feminists and women led groups are pressing for a CSW61 Agreed Outcome document that shows governments showing courage to change the inequalities within and between states, examining and addressing sustainable consumption and production patterns, and envisioning a changing world of work for women that is not toward concentration of wealth and corporate power that prevents governments from investing in public services and social protection necessary for women’s economic rights, but rather toward a just and equitable future for all, including women and girls,” says Noelene Nabulivou, political adviser of DIVA for Equality in the final days of the 61st session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61) here in New York.

But the shrinking spaces for women’s human rights are glaringly obvious.

This year’s CSW has seen attacks on NGO access to the consulting process as the negotiations come to a close today.

According to the NGO CSW Committee as well as We Rise Coalition partners outside the negotiations on Wednesday, UN Security staff removed NGOs from the building after 6pm while negotiations continued late into the night.

CSW Agreed Conclusion negotiations were moved to the ECOSOC Chamber and Trusteeship Council Chamber twice this week. These meeting rooms are on the second floor which are off-limits to NGOs.

This has severely restricted NGO/government informal discussions, hampering their ability to support the progress of the negotiations.

Gains at risk
This is putting at risk the gains we have made for women’s rights, as Nabulivou explains:
“We see more governments making links between women’s work and climate change, and we now want to see language on implementation; and on what components are needed for just and equitable transitions to low carbon economies.

“We also are concerned for language to help address structural issues such as the grossly imbalanced global economic and financial system; and a growing automation of work impacting on women already at the bottom of deeply unequal global supply chains.”

Caroline Lambert of International Women’s Development Agency has raised issues of universal human rights, and inclusion of all women as central to leaving no-one behind:
“For too long, the CSW has failed to recognise the human rights associated with sexual orientation and gender identity.

“It’s time for the CSW to uphold these critical human rights.”

She added: “The indivisibility of human rights, particularly the vital intersection of labour rights with women’s economic empowerment, must be a strong part of the Agreed Conclusions. This text must place the ILO as a central pillar of the outcomes.”

In this global political climate, feminist networks and women human rights defenders, says Nabulivou, hope for a text that better responds to multiple forms of misogyny and patriarchal behaviour, authoritarianism, conservatism and violence that are being used to try to restrict women’s bodily autonomy, movement, sexuality and decision-making over their lives:
“It is important that the CSW61 Agreed Outcomes reflect a strong universal human rights framework.”

Pressing issues
Feminists across the world now look to the UN Secretary-General, UN Women and all member states to ensure that the remainder of the negotiations are open to civil society engagement, and that the agreed conclusions respond to the most pressing issues facing women’s human rights.

It is after all part of the critical legacy of collaboration between member states and civil society at the Commission on the Status of Women which have delivered many advances for women’s human rights, from the development of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women and its Optional Protocol; to the creation of the first International Year of Women as well as the adoption of the first Security Council Resolution on Women, Peace and Security.

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls of femLINKpacific is at the consultations as a representative of We Rise Coalition, led by four feminist organisations:

• Diverse Voices and Action for Equality (DiVA)
• femLINKpacific (femLINK)
• Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM)
• International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA)

The Indonesian government’s response in the wake of a spate of rape and murder of young women and children this year has been widely welcomed by the public in general, but concerns remain about the existence of a “rape culture” in which many victims are ignored.

The government response is seen as reactive, providing penalties for crimes against women and children, but doing nothing to reduce the incidence of such crimes or providing more guarantees of safety for the most vulnerable groups in society.

After declaring sexual offences against children an “extraordinary crime” on May 10, President Joko Widodo on May 25 signed a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) stipulating tougher sanctions which include, as a maximum, the death penalty for perpetrators of sexual assault against children.

The Perppu also introduced the potential for chemical castration and computer chip implantation for convicted child assailants.

“We need extraordinary efforts to address such extraordinary crimes which can threaten and endanger the life and the development of our children,” the president said.

The House of Representatives was scheduled to meet on July 27 to discuss ratification of the Perppu.

The new punishments mostly won praise in the country, where there is strong backing for the death penalty. Activists, however, are unhappy, stating the punishments were a knee-jerk reaction and do not provide solutions to address the real problems.

And while the new regulations raised the bar for offenses involving children, they did little to protect women from sexual violence.

Yuyun’s trauma
The reaction from the government followed a public outcry over the grisly gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old school girl, Yuyun, by 14 youths and men in Rejang Lebong regency, Bengkulu. The dead body of the girl was discovered naked and tied up in a ravine on April 4, two days after her family filed a missing persons report.

Her case received little media attention for weeks and might have become just another case that went unnoticed before feminists began a social media campaign seeking justice, as part of their wider campaign to end violence against women and children in Indonesia.

Other cases immediately caught the public eye, including the gang rape of a 19-year-old student in Manado, North Sulawesi, allegedly involving local police officers, and the death of a two-year-old boy in Bogor, West Java after being sexually abused by his neighbor.

The number of cases that have been reported since the Yuyun case attracted national attention suggests that the media has only now decided that such cases are worth the effort of reporting. There are fears that in the past many cases were simply brushed under the carpet by both the police and the media.

A widespread problem
A UN report released in September 2013 showed that almost a quarter of men in parts of Asia admitted to having committed at least one rape.

Ten thousand men from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka took part in the survey. Rape was particularly common within relationships, according to the study.

One in 10 men admitted raping a woman who was not their partner.

In Indonesia, 31.9 percent of respondents admitted forcing a woman to have sex. Nearly three-quarters of those who committed rape said they did so for reasons of “sexual entitlement”.

The second most common motivation reported was rape as a form of entertainment, while some used rape as a form of punishment or because the man was angry. Surprisingly, the least common motivation was alcohol.

Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) recorded over 320,000 cases of violence against women in 2015, with around 11,000 cases were categorized as domestic violence while 1657 cases were sexual violence.

The total number of cases of violence in 2015 represented a significant increase from 293,220 cases in the previous year – and these are only incidents reported to authorities or the commission.

Dominant culture
Experts say women in Indonesia are often resigned to the dominant cultural perspective on gender violence. Many victims choose not to report cases because of family pressure, and sometimes because communities put the blame on them.

Meanwhile, police often have to release perpetrators of domestic sexual violence at the request of their wives and partners.

Law enforcers also apply an outdated definition of rape requiring evidence such as blood and semen. This and the fact that women are often accused of having invited sexual assault underlines the reality that Indonesia, along with so many other countries in Asia, remains a place where gender equality remains a distant dream.

In its annual report for 2015, Komnas Perempuan reported increasing occurrence of sexual assaults, which dominate cases of violence against women, in recent years. It is widely believed the figure is only the tip of an iceberg as most sexual crimes are unreported due to trauma or limited access to justice.

While the situation can be quickly blamed on weak legal enforcement, little has been done to end the rape culture in the society. In a largely patriarchal nation, women are often taught that they need to avoid getting raped but young men are not told that rape represents a serious crime.

Women are still perceived as property in most parts of the country. A “moral defect”, even when it’s a result of violent behavior, will cause the girl to lose her value and create a disgrace to the family.

Meanwhile, male sexual violence is normal and mostly seen as a reflection of power and masculinity. In the case of sexist jokes and verbal offence, women are told to be grateful for being targeted for such behavior because it is a sign that they are good-looking.

A friendly gesture on the part of a woman can be easily mistaken as a sign of promiscuity.

Compromised safety
The widespread “rape culture” clearly has compromised the safety of women, including in public spaces. A bias toward male sexual domination combined with poor infrastructure and security provide opportunities for sexual offenders to commit such crimes.

Indonesia was ranked the third worst place among G20 countries for women to live, according to a survey released in 2013. Indonesia was ranked behind India and Saudi Arabia, which face similar challenges with problems such as child marriage, sex trafficking, violence and the exploitation of women.

Rape can happen virtually anywhere. Reports of sexual harassment of women who commute to and from work on public transportation occur virtually every other day.

At least three cases of rape and one of rape and murder in public minivans were reported in Greater Jakarta in the period 2011-2014. In November 2015, a young woman was raped and robbed while crossing a pedestrian bridge at Lebak Bulus, near the upscale Pondok Indah area in South Jakarta.

To the public’s outrage, police and then-Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo responded to a case in 2014 by advising women against traveling alone and wearing “revealing clothing” to avoid instigating men’s sexual desire and being raped.

Hera Diani, one of the founders of feminist web-based magazine Magdalene, says that despite the public concern over the Yuyun case, it did not go far enough.

“We might be better than India but we did not see the same level of public outrage that the Indian public expressed after the rape and murder of a medical student in the wake of Yuyun’s case, indicating that something is wrong,” she said.

“A female globetrotter even said that women’s safety level in Jakarta is even more worrying than in Mexico because there, the crimes are concentrated in certain areas. In Jakarta, the violence is widespread, it can happen everywhere.”

Brutal gang rape
Diani was referring to the brutal gang rape of a young Indian woman on a bus in New Delhi in late 2012. The victim was returning home from a movie and had boarded a bus with a male friend on the night of December 16, 2012 when four men, including the bus driver, beat them up and gang-raped her.

The victims were then thrown out of the bus and left to die.

The rape triggered a nationwide protest in the country, known to have an endemic sexual violence problem. A week after the incident, Indian lawmakers passed stricter laws on sexual violence, including a minimum 20-year prison sentence for rape and the death penalty for extreme cases.

Indian lawmakers also expanded the definition of rape to include penetration by objects or any body part. Sexual abuse in all its forms including sexual harassment, stalking and voyeurism was also made illegal. Moreover, fast-track courts were established to speed up trials in sexual assault cases which earlier took years to conclude.

Government response
Women’s rights activists agree that sexual assault and rape are more about domination than a mere sexual impulse. A study on the cause of rape in Asia-Pacific by the UN Development Fund for Women (Unifem) in 2013 found that 73 percent of 13,000 sexual offenders surveyed said sexual entitlement, the belief that men have a right to sex with women regardless of consent, was the main motivation for rape.

The remainder said they committed rape for entertainment, while alcohol, often assumed to be a common trigger for violence, was the least common response. Men who had themselves been victimised – abused, raped or otherwise sexually coerced – were more likely to commit rape than those who were not, the study also found.

The Indonesian government’s refusal to acknowledge the rape culture is reflected in the narrow definition of sexual assault in the Criminal Code (KUHP). The regulation centers on physical abuse and says less about psychological and economic violence.

It left marital rape unaddressed until the ratification of the Domestic Violence Law in 2004.

Despite the narrow definition, the government actually has no shortage of laws criminalising sexual offenders. Apart from the KUHP, it has ratified international conventions on protection of women and children as well as on the handling of human trafficking crimes and the prevention of child marriage, for example.

Approach of law enforcers
Indonesia’s rape culture is demonstrated in problematic law enforcement, which perpetuates the view that the crime occurs because the victim invited it. Gender-biased police officers often make impolite remarks to victims and judges ask irrelevant questions during trials.

Lenient sentences are only one element that sustains the violence and discrimination against women, seen as the second gender.

A victim of sexual assault committed by four officers of the TransJakarta bus services in January 2014 was questioned by the judge about the length of her pants on the day of the incident. She was not offered any legal assistance and was obliged to pay for a medical examination.

The offenders were jailed for only 18 months.

A report in The Jakarta Post in August 2014 made it clear that women aren’t safe in even everyday environments. In a commentary on the Transjakarta case, the country’s patriarchal society was identified as the root of the problem, hindering victims of sexual assaults from obtaining justice.

Members of the legal system often lacked sensitivity, it quoted activists as stating.

Founder of the rape-survivor support group Lentera Indonesia, Wulan Danoekoesoemo, said many rape victims chose not to report their cases to the police because the law itself did not side with the victim.

“Some victims feel hopeless because it’s difficult to process a sexual-assault case. Even if the cases are processed, the sentences for the offenders are too short,” she said.

Deep trauma
Meanwhile the victim suffered deep trauma.

Blaming the woman for “inviting” an assault is not uncommon. Activist Kartika Jahja said in The Jakarta Post report that it is not unusual for judges and defendants’ lawyers to question a victim’s clothes and ethnicity.

Women’s Legal Aid Foundation (LBH APIK) executive Uli Pangaribuan agreed that such stigmatizing was why many rape victims chose to keep quiet.

“The reason why many rape victims in this country choose not to report to the police is because they’re ashamed and they’re afraid that society will put the blame on them,” Pangaribuan said, according to the Post.

People tended to normalise rape if the victim was wearing a mini-skirt or a tight blouse.

Who’s to blame?
Meanwhile, some were inquiring why Yuyun, the 14-year-old rape victim in Bangkulu, was wandering near a desolate plantation by herself, prompting the opinion that she herself might have triggered the crime.

Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise entered the blame game by criticising the girl’s parents for working and not being available for their children.

The comment from the minister demonstrates that the patriarchal view that women’s place is in the home is shared by many women, despite the reality that women often have to work to help the family survive economically. It also assumes that women do not have a right to a career.

It is obvious that more needs to be done to change the perspective and approach that sides more with the accused during legal proceedings. Heavier sanctions such as chemical castration in the new Perppu will not necessarily be effective in preventing more violence.

Diani of Magdalene said she was cooperating with Komnas Perempuan to capitalise on the current momentum to raise public awareness on the danger of rape culture and improve protection for women and children.

Activists, she said, have pushed the House of Representatives to include the deliberation of the anti-sexual violence bill into its priority program for this year but the process of deliberation is yet to start.

“We are looking for better access to legal and psychological assistance for victims of sexual abuse as well as building law enforcement forces with improved gender awareness,” Diani said.

The tougher sanctions introduced in the new Perppu must not be the end of efforts to stopping violence against women and children, Diani said.

Integrated solutions
There’s no single approach to ending the violence. Measures in the legal process must be supported by a concerted effort to build public awareness to reverse the discriminative mindset, which must include improvement of welfare and national education systems.

“Inclusion of sexual education that introduces the correct concepts on good sexual and reproductive health into school curriculums is necessary to complete the push for stronger law enforcement,” said Diani.

She admitted, however, that advocating for proper sexual education for students would most likely face rejection from certain members of the public, who have grown more religiously conservative and xenophobic despite Indonesia being hailed as one of the most open, democratic societies in the world.

“The public most likely would highlight that advocating sexual education means promoting free sex, which they say is against Islamic teaching and so-called Asian values,” Diani said.

The media, she added, must also play a role in the reform process by adhering to the code of ethics of journalism instead of publishing sensational headlines when reporting cases of sexual assault.

In reporting recent cases of sexual violence, a lot of local newsrooms have projected a clear picture of gender bias in reporting, with the publication of gory details and uncensored pictures of the victims.

Lack of women police
A shortage of women police officers is a part of the problem of the failure of police to properly investigate sexual assaults. The police themselves adopt patriarchal values by applying a “virginity test” for new recruits.

A storm over the practice emerged in 2014, when Nisha Varia, associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, stated that the practice was discriminatory and harmed and humiliated women.

While police insist that the practice is no longer used, sources within the force cited by HRW and other rights organisations insist that it is continuing.

HRW said in November 2014 that the National Police planned an immediate 50 percent increase in the number of policewomen, to 21,000. With a force of about 400,000 police officers, the additional hiring would increase the percentage of women on the force from 3 percent to 5 percent.

It is not clear that the hiring campaign was successful, but even at 5 percent women officers would be spread very thinly through the force. Many police stations would not have female officers, further deterring women from reporting crimes.

A May 2015 report in Time magazine on the virginity test issue quoted the head of the national police legal division, Inspector-General Moechgiyarto, as supporting the tests because they maintained the police force’s moral standards.

“If she (a candidate) turns out to be a prostitute, how could we accept her for the job?” he said.

Unhealthy atmosphere
This approach clearly creates an unhealthy atmosphere for female police recruits, and in general creates difficulty for the victims of sexual assault to have their cases dealt with effectively.

In an article in Australian website The Conversation, Irawati Harsono, a lecturer in criminology at the Police Studies College, said she was appalled when she was told that all women police had been removed from the border with East Timor following the referendum and rebellion against Indonesian rule in 1999.

“The presence of female police officers is crucial in ensuring women and children refugees are protected and that their needs are met. In refugee camps, women and children usually lose out in the fighting over resources such as water and blankets.

“They are also vulnerable to sexual abuse. The decision to withdraw female officers says a lot about how the police organisation regards female officers,” she stated. And generally, she added, “policewomen are considered mere auxiliaries to policemen.”

Calling for empowerment of women police, Harsono stated that while there had been improvement in legislation to protect women and children, this had made very little difference.

“The way a country regards female police officers is crucial in its efforts to protect women against violence in the general population,” she said.

“Since 2007, each police district has established a special women and children protection unit. The attorney general has a focal point for women’s issues. The Supreme Court also has a working group. But despite such legal and structural progress, if the culture within the police corps still discriminates against women, effective protection for women’s rights will fall short.”

Economic impacts
The economic cost, in addition to the physical, psychological and health impacts, is often forgotten in the case of sexual violence. Advancing gender equality and eliminating the endemic violence are therefore becoming more important as Widodo’s government vows to build a sustainable economy and achieve 7 percent growth by the end of its tenure in 2019.

The World Bank in November 2015 estimated that aside from psychological repercussions, gender-based violence has been shown to have dire economic consequences, costing an estimated 3.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) due to lost productivity. The percentage is more than double what most governments spend on education.

“The negative stigmas attached to survivors of sexual violence might make them lose their jobs,” Diani said, agreeing that productivity losses due to sexual abuse might be larger and extended to the next generation as impoverished victims might raise vulnerable families and kids.

In the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) for 2015-2019, the government pledges to enhance protection of women and children. It aims to improve prevention of violence through the launching of the National Children Protection Movement, awareness campaigns and the implementation of restorative justice for child convicts.

The measures also include efforts to improve services for victims of violence, which seek better handling of reports, health and social rehabilitation and reintegration, as well as stronger law enforcement with provision of legal assistance.

The RPJMN also outlines plans to upgrade the capacity of agencies working on women and children’s protection through a better legal system, inter-agency coordination and the establishment of an information system related to the crime.

The plan of action, included in the five-year economic development roadmap, signals that the government is aware of the importance of promoting women and children’s protection. The move indicates that the state is heading in the right direction in providing protection for all its citizens, but evidence remains scant that any of these policies have been implemented.

The government needs to encourage society to move toward a culture of preventing the perpetration of rape through a persuasive campaign at all levels, rather than relying on prevention through knee-jerk responses. While the government’s Perrpu looks tough, there is no indication at this stage that it will make women any safer.

Women and girls’ news and issues make up only 24 percent of all reports in print, radio and television media.