Inong Aceh : an analysis on the changing position of women in Aceh

Abstract

The women of Aceh have become more outspoken in their demands to improve their lives. For too long their voices have been drowned in outside praises of a glorious an distant past. The previous chapters have shown that the exaggerated rhetoric of "the independent Acehnese women" often serves to hide the fact that Acehnese women have been confined into the domestic sphere and outside of the public sphere. This misleading image has been so successful that few Acehnese women would question such a construct and consequently failed to question the male dominance in almost every aspect of decision-making social mechanisms. This gender imbalance has been very structural and thoroughly internalised by Acehnese men and women that the current contestation is focused in representation (who gets to say what) and not political (who gets to do what).

Until Acehnese men and women in general achieve a level of gender awareness which transcends the obsession over form, any effort to improve gender relations will only scratch the surface. Worse, it may even serve to reinforce and reproduce the existing dominance of one gender over the other. The use of women imagery in the propaganda war between the Indonesian military and the separatist GAM - both in more than one occasion claimed to champion women's rights - is an example of the subversion of gender representation. It is no coincidence that both sides are basically male-dominated organisations.

Not everything in Aceh is hopeless. Fortunately for women the current conflict in Aceh presents a window of opportunity to demand for a change in the composition of political leadership. With so many Acehnese men is reluctant to be openly involved in politics (due to the military oppression), the field is open for women to become more involved in public leadership. Whether Acehnese women is able to seize this opportunity only history can tell.