An emotionally and physically abusive marriage of 11 years led Rani Miranti to join a club that has trained her in martial arts, enabling her to stand up against violence.
Miranti is one of the growing number of Indonesian women who are taking self-defense classes as gender-based violence remains a challenge in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
“Government protection usually comes after violence has happened, while we never know when it will come,” said the 38-year-old single mother of three children. “Unfortunately, when it suddenly comes, no one can help. So, we need to have self-defense capabilities.”
Photo: AP
The Indonesian National Commission on Violence Against Women, known as Komnas Perempuan, recorded 289,111 cases last year, a decrease of about 12 percent from 339,782 in 2022, the year when a law against sexual violence was enacted.
However, the commission said that the latest data represents “a tip of the iceberg” in gender-based violence.
The true number of cases is suspected to be significantly higher, it said in its annual report for last year, which was released in March.
A large number of cases went unreported because of several factors: limited access for victims to complaint services, a weak case documentation system and a high level of social stigma toward victims of violence, the report said.
The Indonesian parliament approved a far-reaching law in 2022 that sets punishment for sexual violence and guarantees provisions, restitution or other remedies for victims and survivors.
The law was passed a week after an Indonesian high court sentenced an Islamic boarding school principal to death for raping at least 13 students over five years and impregnating some of them. The girls were between 11 and 14 years old and were raped over several years, drawing public outcry over why he was not caught earlier.
This month, Indonesia’s electoral commission fired its chair after finding him guilty of sexual assault following a complaint by an employee. It was the latest in a series of the country’s high-profile cases of violence against women in a vast archipelago nation of more than 277 million people.
With cases growing, more Indonesian women and girls who feared physical violence turned to alternative ways of ensuring their safety, including self-defense classes and clubs.
For Miranti, whose husband repeatedly attacked and physically abused her, Muay Thai is the most suitable self-defense, as it helps her gain more skills, self-confidence and prevention techniques.
Wearing a red hijab and boxing gloves, Miranti, who teaches at a Jakarta Islamic primary school, demonstrated her skill in pounding a heavy bag and kicking toward her sparring partner.
It is part of her training routine in a mixed martial arts course in eastern Jakarta, where she enrolled almost two years ago after she decided to get out of her abusive marriage in 2018.
With origins in Thailand, Muay Thai is a form of kickboxing that includes knee and elbow strikes, kicks and punches.
“Now, I have a way ... I have the skill to fight back, but even more importantly, I have learned to avoid situations by being more aware of my surroundings,” Miranti said.
Miranti’s coach, Rahimatul Hasanah, said that she was overwhelmed by the increasing demand of women who want to learn martial arts, especially in private training, as female Muay Thai instructors are hard to find.
“Many aren’t going to feel comfortable to be coached by male instructors, or need a private class at home,” she said.
Hasanah said that most of the women who have attended her self-defense classes are timid, with some experiencing abuse in the past.
“Learning physical self-defense not only gives the tools to control their reactions to negative situations, but also can build the confidence for mental defense, too,” she said.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS