We feel that the kernel of all religion is good and beautiful. But, O ye peoples, what have you made of it?†Instead of drawing us together, religion has often forced us apart and even this young girl realized that it should be a unifying force. The girl who wrote these letÂters happened to have a father who, as she says, was liberal and had a tremendous understanding of the longings of the hearts of the young Javanese. He allowed his daughÂters to go to a foreign school until they were twelve and then they had to return to the cloistered home life, but among themselves there was a freedom of communication and a closeness, which did not exist in many of the Javanese families of the day.†Kartini said. Raden Adjeng Kartini, sometimes known as Raden Ayu Kartini, was born on 21 April 1879. She was a prominent Indonesian national heroine from Java, also a pioneer in the area of education for girls and women’s rights for Indonesians.
Nia S. Amira
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Born into an aristocratic JavaÂnese family in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, Kartini was the fifth child and second eldest daughter in a family of eleven, including half siblings. She was born into a family with a strong intellectual tradition. Her father, SosÂroningrat became Regency Chief of Jepara after his second marriage to Woerjan, a diÂrect descendant of King of Madura considering that Kartini’s mother, Ngasirah was not of sufficient nobility and even as the first wife but not the most important one.
Kartini’s family alÂlowed her to attend school until she was 12 years old. Here, among other subÂjects, she learnt to speak Dutch, an unusual accomplishÂment for Javanese women at the time. AfÂter that, she was secluded at home, a common pracÂtice among J a v a n e s e n o b i l i t y, t o p r e Âpare young girls for their marÂriage. She aspired to furÂther education but the option was unavailÂable to her and other girls in Javanese sociÂety. Kartini’s father was more lenient, giving her and her sisters such privileges as embroidery lessons and occasional appearÂances in public for special events. During her seclusion, Kartini continued to educate herself on her own. She could speak Dutch and she acquired several Dutch pen friends. One of them was Rosa AbenÂdanon, who later became her close friend.
Kartini’s reading included the Semarang newspaper De LocomoÂtief, edited by Pieter Brooshooft, as well as leestrommel, a set of magaÂzines circulated by bookshops to subscribers. She also read cultural and scientific magaÂzines as well as the Dutch w o m e n ’ s m a g a z i n e De HollandÂsche Lelie, to which she beÂgan to send contributions which were pubÂlished. Before she was 20 she had read Max Havelaar and Love Letters by Multatuli. She also read De Stille Kracht by Louis CoupeÂrus, the works of Frederik van Eeden, Augusta de Witt, the Romantic-Feminist author Goekoop de-Jong Van Eek and an anti-war novel by Berta von Suttner, Die Waffen Nieder!. All were in Dutch. Books, newspapers and EuÂropean magazines fed Kartini’s inÂterest in European feminist thinking even nationalist.
Even in her very short life, KarÂtini had tried her important role for the legacy that may support the rights of Indonesian women particulary, and as national idenÂtity generally. A mother of a unique child whom she never met after she delivered her baby and died on 17 September 1904, provides an inspiration to continuing effort to overcome of the challenges faced by the Indonesian women.
It was once in the Javanese feuÂdal’s family had happened when their family member could argue with the old system that had run for centuries and Kartini the one who made this happen through her letÂters. In 1964, President Sukarno deÂclared Kartini’s birth date, 21 April, as ‘Kartini Day’ – an Indonesian naÂtional holiday.
In the present-day Indonesia, Hari Ibu Kartini or Kartini Day is more seen as an annual event in school calendar, often providing the setting in which students can explore Indonesian history, the role of womÂen in the society, in the families, the rich cultural diversity of Indonesia and busy day for mother who must take care of their beloved dressing up in traditional outfits celebrating Kartini Day at school by doing fashÂion show or marching around the school’s area showing their enthusiÂasm to the people that they always remember what Ibu Kartini had tried to do for the goodsake of Indonesian women’s future.
