Indonesia

Camellia Lubis, a 28-year-old dangdut singer popularly known as Camel Petir (Thunder), is one of 2,467 women legislative candidates vying for a seat in the House of Representatives.

The legislative candidate from the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), who will be standing for the second Jakarta electoral district, says she has been greatly underestimated due to her background as a singer with no political experience.

“Men are from Mars and women are from Venus” may have been the title of a best-selling book, but it also emphasizes how women have always been depicted differently to men. It also happens in politics. Physical and psychological differences aside, women are indeed a special group in politics, women’s rights activists say.

We invite you to read the full article pulished March 28, 2014

The meaningful role women should play in parliament is to have an impact in changing the nature of politics and to create more honest government.

In a bid to achieve gender equality and promote womens rights in Indonesia, the country needs to put more women in parliament, which is responsible for legislating laws that are critical to changing the situation of women.

We invite you to read the full article published March 24, 2014

Despite efforts to increase the number of women in politics, they still face an uphill battle to join the male-dominated political world, a political expert has said.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political analyst Siti Zuhro said women in general were still victims of discrimination.

We invite you to read the full article published January 13, 2014

Women’s activists in Bali expect that female representation in the Provincial and Regional Councils could go up to 15 percent next year from its current 7.5 percent, which is the lowest in the country.

Democracy and women’s activist from Bali Sruti Foundation, Luh Riniti Rahayu, said Saturday the target of between 11 to 15 percent was plausible, seeing that the total number of women on the Final List of Candidates (DCT) for the 2014 general election in Bali amounted to 33 percent.

Two Indonesian women peace activists have won the 2013 N-Peace Awards for their efforts to promote women's equality and protection of women against discrimination.

“The N-Peace Awards for Indonesia this year is awarded to Bapak Suprayoga Hadi and Ibu Valentina Sagala,” United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Communication Associate, Tina Kardjono, in a press statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Here, in Indonesia's second-largest city, legend tells of a titanic battle between Sura, the great white shark, and Baya, the crocodile. Meeting in a river one day, the two creatures fought ferociously for supremacy of the animal kingdom. The place where they clashed became known as "Surabaya," the city of the shark and the crocodile, emblematic of the repeated waves of colonial sharks and crocodiles that have controlled the city for centuries.