Joko Anwar’s A Copy Of  My Mind – A Jakarta Story, an Indonesian Story  by Faiza Mardzoeki Jakartans will be very familiar indeed with electricity cables criss-crossing, tangled, chaotically marring their glimpse of an ever dirtily greying sky. So too the repeating call to prayer echoing along Jakarta’s narrow lanes and alleys coming from the city’s hundreds […]

This article was published in Magdalene September 2012, I visited for the very first time the Monumen Pancasila Sakti at LubangBuaya. Although this was the first time I had been to Lubang Buaya, those two words –“Lubang Buaya” – were very familiar indeed to me, almost seared into my mind. I think I firstbegan to […]

This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title “Wanted: Women’s voices from the movement”. As of 2019, there are 131 women members of the United States congress, the largestnumber ever. More significant perhaps is the fact that it is from among these women thatthe sharpest and most critical voices on issues of social justice and democracy […]

This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title “Sexual repression and misogynistic moral police“. A man and a woman were sitting at a table, chatting intimately over a meal. They wereboyfriend and girlfriend sharing an affectionate moment. Suddenly a screaming mob invadedthe house. The two were forcibly dragged outside. This violent, invading mob was led, shockingly, […]

This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title “Being Indonesian: Not by memorizing Pancasila”. Pancasila has become the topic of great discussion, in the social media, in thenewspapers and on TV, and in our political chats. There are many postings expressing concern that Indonesia’s diversity is underthreat and that the Pancasila values have been forgotten. Many […]

This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title “Women continue local, global struggle for change” Just last year there were over 300,000 cases of domestic violence; almost 70 percentoccurred within personal relations, the Commission on Violence Against Women (KomnasPerempuan) reported. These statistics show that little has changed in over a decade despite the fact […]

This article was published in The Jakarta Post, November 5, 2016 In the early morning of 16 September, 2016 I was heading to Terminal 3 atSoekarno Hatta airport in Tangerang: I was “going back to the village” after 25years in Jakarta. I had spent short periods in Sydney and Melbourne as wellas in our neighbour, […]

This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title “Indonesian women: Their choices, ‘destiny’”. Indonesia has now been independent for 71 years. What has been achieved, especially forwomen? The first thing to note is that there is no discrimination against women in the 1945Constitution, which refers to “all the people of Indonesia”. Since the first […]

This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title “Manipulation of Kartini symbol must end”. “I have thought a lot about what people say: Live happily! … People don’t want to see thenaked truth. They turn away revolted from reality …. Earlier today, we were so shaken andmoved by an example of the suffering in […]

There is no doubt that Bali is a beautiful place. Lush green rice terraces, created through the hard work of Balinese farmers, bordered by dense coconut palms and frangipani trees. Along the coast, this is supplemented by wonderful beaches and vast stretches of turquoise seas. Adding to the beauty, lays what Westerners see as a […]