Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Interior renewal to help effectively promote the role of women in Indonesian society while combatting gender disparities. According to Justina Rostiawati, chairman of the Indonesian Catholic women's Association (WKRI), this is the goal of the Catholic female organism, which met last week in Jakarta, celebrating 90 years of social work. From its outset the association has distinguished itself within the Indonesian society, for its active role in promoting the dignity of women, following the directives of Catholic doctrine.
The WKRI was born in 1924
in Yogyakarta, in central Java, thanks to the intuition of two leading figures
from the local church, the Jesuit
priest Fr. van Driesche and Mrs. RA
Soejadi Sastraningrat. The movements goal from the outset was to minimize
underdevelopment and gender issues that long forced Indonesian
women into an inferior role to their male counterparts.
One of the first initiatives was
literacy programs, sewing classes and
other training courses for women.
In the last few decades in Indonesia gender issues have become increasingly heated.
The issue permeated discussion at the conference,
which was held last week to celebrate
the 90th anniversary of the
association. A low key celebration, but a lot of ideas and
projects to give more weight
and value to the
presence of women in society,
a social reality that remains - in some areas
and sectors - limited, if not discriminated against.
Today WKRI counts at least 86 thousand members throughout the country and is active both within the Church and in society. Rather than looking at past successes, attention is focused on the future, because as the president says much remains to be done in a "male-centric" society. Another step that needs to be taken in this mission is eliminating factors that have tarnished the association's image in the past, including the idea that some of its members are "old-fashioned, elderly and ignorant women"
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, Christians represent 5.7 per cent of the population with Catholics just over 3.6 per cent. Catholics are an active component in society. Over the years, they have contributed to the nation's development and played a major role in emergency operations, as was the case during the devastating floods of January 2013.