The theory and context of the stigmatisation of widows and divorcees (janda) in Indonesia

ABSTRACT

This article theorises and contextualises the stigmatisation of janda (widows and divorcees) in Indonesia. It firstly reviews the social science literature on stigma in society, showing a shift towards the study of stigmatisation as an exercise of power by a dominant group in society. It argues that the content of that stigmatisation works best when it is culturally relevant, useful to the dominant and hurtful to the stigmatised minority. Secondly, it surveys the social and cultural context in which widows and particularly divorcees are stigmatised in Indonesia. It argues that the apparent acceptability of divorce in the 1950s and 1960s shifted through the period of the New Order (1966–98), and divorce became much less common and more stigmatised. An education revolution contributed to more elaborate courtship patterns, later age of marriage and a trend to marriage by choice rather than parental arrangement; the patriarchal gender system and nuclear family ideology of the New Order state, and its reconstruction of marriage and divorce, along with other features of its development agenda, contributed to social transformations that include the stigmatisation of divorce for women. Finally, the article suggests other promising areas for future research on the stigmatisation of janda in Indonesia – among them are representations of janda in popular culture, a study of the ‘broken home’ phenomenon, and the class dimensions of janda stigmatisation.

KEYWORDS:

• Divorce
• Indonesia
• marriage
• stigma
• women

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank the UWA-UQ Bilateral Research Collaboration Awards which funded the collaboration of researchers on this project.

ORCID

Lyn Parker http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2218-9919

Notes

¹ Jonathan Mann is the founding Director of the World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS. This quote is taken from his 1987 address to the United Nations General Assembly. His address set out a framework for the understanding of AIDS as a social disease which became generally accepted.

² The abortion option is illegal in Indonesia although it is not difficult to procure one in the cities in Indonesia, as there are many ‘backyard abortionists’. It is generally considered that such illegal abortions constitute a significant component of high levels of maternal mortality in Indonesia. In 2013 Indonesia had the third highest maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in Asia: 190 deaths per 100,000 live births (WHO 2014).

³ Other stigmatising conditions include those associated with health and bodies e.g. HIV-AIDS sufferers (Ford et al. 2004); people with physical disabilities, mental illness, and leprosy; as well as race (e.g. Papuans, Chinese) and indigeneity (e.g. the Mentawaians and Kubu in Sumatra); and a host of local social practices (e.g. dog-eating in Bali).

⁴ The main exception is men who are drug addicts and/or have HIV-AIDS.

⁵ Hildred Geertz followed the social structure identified by her partner, Clifford Geertz, in his famous book, The religion of Java (1960). His three-way division of Javanese society – the majority were abangan, who were religiously syncretic, socio-economically peasants; then came the town-dwelling santri who followed orthodox Islamic teachings and were often engaged in trade; and finally the small number of elite aristocrats, the priayayi – has not been accepted by later anthropologists.

⁶ However, Bowen (2003: 210–14), who was working mainly in the Gayo highlands of Aceh in Sumatra, paints a rather different picture. While he argues that Islamic judges saw divorce as a moral issue and marriages as sacred, he cites a trend post-1991 towards no-fault divorce, finding instead that ‘irreconcilable differences’ were sufficient grounds for divorce.

⁷ This verse is variously translated and interpreted: ‘Men have authority over women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband's] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance - [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand’ (translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali).

⁸ Thanks to Aquarini Priyatna Prabasmoro for supplying this. Rifka Media is published quarterly by the feminist NGO, Rifka Annisa. Rifka Annisa is particularly well known for its pioneering work on domestic violence in Indonesia.

⁹ The author has conducted fieldwork in Bali intermittently since 1980 and in West Sumatra (home of the Minangkabau) since 2004.

¹⁰This broader phenomenon came to be recognised by feminist scholars as ibuism. The term was coined by Madelon Djajadiningrat-Nieuwenhuis (1987) to refer to the New Order (born-again priyayi) ideal of the self-sacrificing mother who volunteers in a plethora of women's organisations at community level to support her husband and develop bourgeois housewifeliness among lower-class women.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lyn Parker

Author biography

Lyn Parker is an anthropologist at the School of Social Science, University of Western Australia. Her most recent book co-authored with Pam Nilan is Adolescents in contemporary Indonesia (Routledge, 2013). Email: [email protected]