JAKARTA--As the best-known advocate of legal justice and human rights protections for women in Indonesia, Nursyahbani Katjasungkana handles relentless demands on her time. But at the busy offices of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice, which she heads, she is usually soft-spoken and serene.

Nur--as she known to friends and associates--can easily recall what led her and six other women lawyers to establish the organization (known as APIK, an acronym for its Indonesian name) three years ago with support from the Ford Foundation. "Most human rights organizations think of human rights mainly in relation to the state: the right to organize, to assemble, freedom of the press," she says. "But for a woman, the idea of democracy begins in the home, having equality with men. A violation of human rights in the domestic sphere is also a human rights violation."

For Nursyahbani, 43, that conviction, and the career it shaped, took root decades ago when a friend was forced to leave school at a young age to marry against her will. She saw a law degree as an instrument to fight such harm. While completing legal studies at Airlangga University, Nursyahbani volunteered in a legal aid bureau run by the law faculty. Later, she joined the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, and during 14 years there argued for the group to incorporate a gender perspective into its work. "I failed," she says, "so I founded this organization."

APIK runs a legal aid service that helps women, especially those of limited means. In 1997 it handled nearly 250 cases--more than twice the number in 1996. Most of them involved workplace discrimination, divorce, custody, marriage validity, and inheritance. Twenty percent to 30 percent of the cases involved charges of sexual and domestic violence. Bianti S. Djiwandono, a Ford Foundation consultant who was based in Jakarta, says many of Indonesia's laws are a legacy of Dutch colonial rule and have also been heavily influenced by particular interpretations of Islamic law. Ninety percent of Indonesia's 200 million people are Muslim. "Most of the laws don't take into account the economic position of women, the fact that many poor women must work outside the home because of economic necessity," Bianti says.

One successful anti-discrimination case APIK handled last year was that of a young woman who became pregnant after joining a private company. Although by law she was entitled to a paid maternity leave of three months, the company refused to grant it on the grounds that she had signed an agreement not to become pregnant during her employment. These agreements are not legal, but Indonesian workers are often unaware of their rights under the law. With APIK's assistance, the woman won her case and got her job back.

EQUALITY FOR ALL
Indonesia's Constitution of 1945 includes the principle of equality for all before the law. But the guarantee is vague, with no provisions spelling out how that equality is to be ensured. Nursyahbani and others say the ideals in the Constitution are difficult to realize. Systematic discrimination implicit in state regulations, family law, and political life, combined with some religious teachings and deeply ingrained cultural attitudes, tend to consign women to roles as subordinates of men.

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The audience at a recent conference in Surabaya, Indonesia, where Nursyahbani Katjasungkana was a speaker.

She notes that the 1974 Marriage Law describes women as household caretakers and men as heads of households and family breadwinners, and that Indonesia's criminal code provides no legal protection for women who are victims of marital rape. And although labor regulations require companies to provide health and maternal benefits for married women, she says companies routinely evade the law, which they view as too costly, by hiring young, single women who are expected to quit after they marry.

APIK organized a program called Feminist Legal Theory and Practice Training to teach judges, lawyers, and women's advocates about issues of particular concern to women. "The first time, the terminology of feminism drew very strong reactions," Nursyahbani says, explaining that some people thought the movement was anti-family and anti-marriage. "Now, we don't use the term 'feminist,'" she adds. "We say 'gender.'" APIK has found that emphasizing the social construction of male and female roles is a more useful approach than an "antagonist" model. "I'm proud to say that as a result of the training, some of the participants have established legal aid services in their own places as APIK branches," Nursyahbani says.

In addition, APIK reviews proposed legislation to ensure that women's concerns are adequately represented. When it was asked to look at a proposed labor reform bill, for example, it helped organize a meeting to gather information from female workers in the Jakarta area. Because APIK's staff is small--11 employees and 3 volunteers--working with other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) is crucial.

CHANGING ATTITUDES
In recent years APIK has worked with other groups to change attitudes among the police and the public that have hindered legal protection for women who have been sexually abused or beaten. "Police now realize rape cases are very important," Nursyahbani says. "But the way they investigate is very patriarchal, putting the burden on the victim." Still, she adds, many have come to agree that rape cases have to be handled differently.

Six months ago, the national police asked APIK to provide training materials to educate officers about investigating rape cases, and also announced plans to set up a special unit for these and other sensitive cases.

In the past, Nursyahbani says, there was a lot of denial in the law-enforcement community regarding domestic violence. Police officers generally refused to proceed with this type of case, viewing it as a private matter that should be resolved at home.

One celebrated case APIK took up last year was that of a woman who had been physically abused by her husband during their 17-year marriage. Finally, under pressure from her children, she registered a complaint with the police after suffering serious facial injuries. The officers encouraged her to drop the matter. APIK intervened, reminding the police of their legal obligation to arrest and charge the husband under the national criminal code that forbids the abuse of family members. The husband was eventually found guilty and sentenced to eight months in prison, although the term was reduced to a year's probation.

While the punishment was disappointing, Nursyahbani says the fact that the case came to court at all represented tremendous progress. "Previously, I introduced similar cases to the police through the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute," she says, "but I always failed to convince them that wife beating was a criminal offense."

TRADITIONS AND MYTHS
As part of its mission, APIK argues the need to reinterpret religious laws. It does so through meetings with progressive Muslim leaders, discussions at Islamic boarding schools, interviews with teachers and ulama (Islamic religious leaders), and policy studies on gender and Islam. Whenever APIK holds workshops or forums on gender issues or violence against women, religion is part of the program. Nursyahbani says some people think the group is critical of religion because "we criticize certain teachings of the Koran that support polygamy and domestic violence."

Nursyahbani Katjasungkana (left), a lawyer, is one of Indonesia's best-known advocates of human rights protections for women.

"And there is the 'night myth'--the idea that if women go out alone at night or wear daring dress, they're setting themselves up for rape and violence," she adds. Research compiled by APIK and other groups has found that most rapes in Indonesian cities occur in the afternoon or morning to girls and women of any age, and that most victims are not dressed provocatively. "Some were even attacked while wearing a veil," she notes.

Since last May, the issue of violence against women has galvanized Indonesians and sympathizers around the world following reports about the rape and torture of women and girls (mainly Chinese-Indonesians) during riots before and after President Suharto's resignation on May 21 after 32 years in power. (Newspapers have linked Government-sanctioned gangs to much of the violence.) Groups organized as Volunteers for Humanity have been collecting evidence, and the Government established a fact-finding commission. But Nursyahbani says the investigation is difficult because documentation is hard to get. "The volunteer teams got data from some of the women and their families," she says, "but many of the women were traumatized and haven't been willing to come forward."

In mid-August, a high-level Government official said he doubted the claims and threatened to take the human rights advocates to court if they failed to produce evidence. The issue continues to be highly politicized, with more Government statements of doubt or denial that evidence of the rapes exists.

CAMPAIGN AGAINST VIOLENCE
Building on the public outrage and widespread calls for justice, APIK helped organize a campaign called State Violence Against Women, which includes forums, seminars, art exhibits, and media reports. "At the end of the campaign, we hope to have a network working to combat violence against women," Nursyahbani says.

The unprecedented freedom of speech and assembly seen in the wake of Suharto's departure has led to more calls for an end to human rights violations of all kinds in Indonesia.

On a Saturday in August, several hundred women, most clad in traditional Islamic dress, and other participants filled a conference hall in a south Jakarta suburb for a forum on violence against women, where Nursyahbani was among the speakers. Muslimat NU, the women's branch of Nahdlatul Ulama, an Islamic social organization, sponsored the gathering.

Lily Munir, who coordinated the event for Muslimat NU, says political and religious leaders in Indonesia have long praised women as pillars of the nation with a "triple role" of reproductive, social, and development responsibilities. "But that is just flattery without any mention of the rights that should balance it," she says.

Such an assembly, she notes, would not have been possible several months ago. "The blessing of the riots is that people have become more open and critical," she says. "Women, too, now have the confidence to speak up."