One Billion Rising dance action in Surabaya protests violence against women

Merdeka.com – February 14, 2013
One Billion Rising dancers in Surabaya - February 14, 2013 (Merdeka)
One Billion Rising dancers in Surabaya - February 14, 2013 (Merdeka)

Moch. Andriansyah – Hundreds of young people from the One Billion Rising (OBR) community held huge street dance at the Bungku Park in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya in an action protesting violence against women on Valentine’s Day.

OBR Surabaya OBR chairperson Meilinda said that the action was a form of concern and a campaign opposing violence against the women of the world.

“This represents an international campaign with the aim of wishing to articulate the hopes of the 1 million women that have to suffer violence or rape in their lives”, she said on Thursday February 14.

According to Meilinda, mass dance actions have not just been held in Surabaya, but simultaneously in 201 countries around the world.

“They want to support fellow women so that they are not afraid and able to respect themselves. In addition to this, the action is also a tangible way to celebrate the attractiveness and beauty of women as well as to build awareness in society without lecturing people”, she said.

Meilinda said there were as many as 24,555 cases of violence against women in East Java in 2011. This figure places East Java as the province with the second highest number of cases after Central Java with 25,628 cases.

“We obtained this data from the Komnas Perempuan (National Commission on Violence Against Women)”, she said. In third place meanwhile is West Java with 17,720 cases, followed by Jakarta with 11,289 cases.

Melinda said that the most common type of violence against women is domestic violence (KDRT), which stood at 113,878 cases, 110,468 of which were cases where women (housewives) experienced violence. “Meanwhile the remainder was dating violence”, she said.

Melinda said that violence against women is not just experienced physically. Data from Komnas Perempuan found that women are still venerable to psychological violence.

“The figure stands at 103,691 cases, with 3,222 cases of economic violence, 2,790 cases of physical violence and 1,398 cases of sexual violence. The Komnas Perempuan also recorded 289 cases of trafficking, 105 cases of violence against migrant workers and 43 cases of violence in the workplace. Hopefully the data that emerged in 2012 will show a steady decline this year”, she said. (dan)

[Sambut Valentine, ratusan remaja menari massal di Surabaya – Merdeka.com. Kamis, 14 Februari 2013. Translated by James Balowski.]