Women former combatants

In the context of the post-conflict rehabilitation, some Acehnese women were also confronted by their reintegration into society. During conflict, many Acehnese women joined the Free Aceh Movement and became part of Teuntra National Aceh (TNA; Aceh National Army).²² The women fighters were called Inong Balee, which literally means ‘women widows’.

During the conflict, the presence of women fighters was acknowledged by GAM, however, there are indications that they were ignored in the process of reintegration of former combatants. Aceh Magazine (2007), for example, reported that none of the Inong Balee were listed in the 3,000 names of people entitled to get war compensation.²³ This compensation was mentioned in the Helsinki MOU and outlined in its Chapter on Amnesty and Reintegration into Society, which says:

GOI [Government of Indonesia] and authorities of Aceh will take measures to assist persons who participated in GAM activities to facilitate their reintegration into the civil society. These measures include economic facilitation to former combatants … A reintegration fund under the administration of Aceh will be established.²⁴

GWG reported that it was only in 2007 that the Rehabilitation Commission of Aceh (KPA) proposed an additional 6,200 names to receive the compensation, and about 30 per cent of them were Inong Balee, that is, 1,680 women.

As argued above, Acehnese women are clearly confronted by complex and growing challenges. Some Acehnese women have responded to this situation by organizing and establishing new women’s NGOs. These NGOs pursue new agendas to meet the various challenges facing Acehnese women, ranging from providing economic assistance, health services (including providing trauma healing to those who have become victims of conflict), legal advocacy and assisting women ex-combatants to reintegrate into society.²⁵ One woman’s NGO that has a direct link with the former combatants is Liga Inong Aceh (LINA, or the Aceh Women’s League).

LINA was first launched on 12 June 2006. LINA was established with the objective of accommodating the aspirations of women who were involved directly in the Free Aceh Movement, as combatants. LINA was established by women activists including Shadia Marhaban, Maryati, Dewi Mutia (who is the wife of the current Deputy Governor of Aceh, Muhammad Nazar) and Cut Fatma. The establishment of LINA was supported by a Swedish-based NGO, the Old Polopment National Swedia. Shadia Marhaban, a former negotiator for GAM during the peace process, was the leader of LINA. LINA sets out its programme as being to assist women to reintegrate into the society and believes that in empowering these women, it must equip them with political education. It organized computer and English training for women. Shadia insists that her organization is not interested in working on issues related to sharia law as she does not see sharia implementation as problematic for women (interview, Banda Aceh, 14 March 2007). Shadia was, in fact, quite critical of the activities of other women’s NGOs in Aceh, especially those who provide advocacy on sharia and women. In her view, the best way to empower Acehnese women is to provide them with access to participate in local politics. One way to achieve this is to equip women with political skills like negotiation or lobbying.

New women’s NGOs

There were several new women’s organizations established in the 2000s. They include Bungeong Jeumpa, An-Nisa, Sri Ratu and Patima Dora. There are also branches of national women’s organizations that work in Aceh and have established offices there, such as Solidaritas Perempuan (SP, Women’s Solidarity) and Kapal Perempuan (Women’s Ship). International NGOs are also present and carry out some of their programmes on women’s empowerment, including IDLO (International Development for Law and Organization), HIVOS, GTZ, UNIFEM, UNFPA and many others. The establishment of the new local NGOs was prompted in part by the arrival of these international and national NGOs

Beujroh is another newly-established women’s NGO in Aceh, established in January 2005, with the idea of providing Acehnese women with better access to the economy. Its website states that the word ‘Beujroh’ is taken from the Acehnese language and literally means ‘hopefully all we do will succeed and receive the blessing from God’. It has three main objectives to improve the lives of Acehnese women, which include empowering women’s economic capacity, providing women with good education, and promoting public campaigns and education to promote women’s agenda. When I visited Beujroh’s office in 2008, it displayed various handicrafts made by women in Meulaboh. This handicraft activity, according to Beujroh, has given women the ability to generate income.

Beujroh is the only local women’s NGO in Aceh that publishes a monthly women’s magazine, called Bungong. The magazine focuses on reporting various issues related to women. It also gives women a forum to write about their experiences and how they deal with the various challenges they face. Beujroh hopes that Bungong will be an alternative media for Acehnese women. Beujroh’s office is also equipped with a library with a collection of books on women, politics and Islam.

Local government institutions

The chapter has discussed how many Acehnese women have responded to the social and political circumstances by organizing into NGOs and women’s movements to provide protection, support and help for other Acehnese women. Acehnese women’s activism has become an alternative axis of power for Acehnese women (Siapno 2002, 4). This section now aims to discuss how the local government protects the rights of women and advancing women’s status in this context.

Molyneux and Razavi (2002, 20) argued that ‘the central instrument for the protection of women’s rights has been, and must remain in the hand of the state’. In the case of Aceh it is obvious that the state has failed to protect women. While Acehnese women suffered in the conflict, little was done by the local and national authorities to protect women (Kamaruzzaman 2006). The government failed to provide protection to women and fulfil women’s gender needs during conflict, which eventually prompted Acehnese women to form solidarity movements to take on the role that should be played by government.

As regards the role of the state in promoting women’s rights and fulfilling women’s gender interests, the United Nations acknowledges the need of the presence of state institution to promote women’s needs and status.

Following the Beijing Declaration, the Indonesian government adopted a series of policies to enhance the role and status of women in what is called a National Action Plan. One of its five major goals is to encourage government organizations, private agencies, socio-political organizations and community organizations to provide more opportunities for women to take public roles (The State Ministry for the Role of Women 1996, cited in Davies 2005, 236). A major step taken by the Indonesian government was the enactment of the Presidential Instruction No. 9/2000 for the State Minister for Women’s Empowerment to launch a Manual of Implementation Guidelines on Gender Mainstreaming in National Development. This instrument provides that all heads of government institutions at the national and sub-national levels are responsible for applying the gender mainstreaming strategy within the scope of their respective tasks, functions, levels of authority, monitoring and evaluation. In the case of Aceh, Presidential Instruction No. 9/2000 also became the basis for the local government of Aceh to implement a Gender Mainstreaming Strategy.

As a follow-up, the local government of Aceh established the Women’s Empowerment Bureau (Biro PP), based on the Governor of Aceh Special Region Decree No.

Another important government institution for women’s empowerment in Aceh that was created following the tsunami was a special division under the Agency for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias (BRR). In its policy paper, the Deputy Director of Education, Health and Women Empowerment acknowledged the need to address problems that confront women post-tsunami. They identified problems such as violence against women; the practice of marrying girls underage; the decline in quality of women’s health and limited access of women to economic sources; and issues of ownership, including inheritance. BRR has also outlined its principles on gender policy, based on equality and good governance. This means active participation and representation of women and men is perceived as a precondition for the success of the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction and social transformation. Second, equality and economic development, that is, equal access and opportunities for women and men to economic resources, is also fundamental for achieving sustainable development in Aceh.

However, both government institutions that have been given mandates to provide protection to women and to fulfil women’s gender interests have been criticized by women activists. Local women activists perceive that government institutions have failed to protect women. One activist said that government institutions have only been successful in returning women back to their houses, and many of their programmes have, in fact, strengthened gender segregation based on sex. For example, the Bureau of Women’s Empowerment, she said, has provided women only with programmes focused on domestic skills such as cooking, baking cakes and sewing.

Similarly, GWG has also criticized the BRR for its failure to create a sustainable strategy to empower Acehnese women as part of the post-tsunami reconstruction. This failure is due to the absence of thorough assessment of what should be done for Acehnese women. In reconstructing infrastructure, BRR has also failed to integrate gender sensitivity in building shelters or various public facilities. GWG also found that BRR has failed to include gender mainstreaming in its programme generally, because BRR did not use gender analysis in carrying out the assessment, planning and implementing of its programme. Another disturbing aspect of BRR’s activities is the fact that women’s representation was very small, as mentioned earlier. According to GWG, the poor representation of women within government institutions that directly deal with women’s issues has contributed to the fact that many of BRR’s policies and agenda are not gender-sensitive.