FACT SHEET: Indonesia/Bali

According to the National Commission on Violence against Women, gender violence in
Indonesia rose sharply, by nearly 50%, last year. In its annual report, released on March 8, there
were 338,496 reported cases of violence against women in 2021 compared to 226,062 during the
previous year. Within those cases, physical, psychological, sexual, and economic abuses are the
most common categories, committed by family members, acquaintances, or even strangers.
According to a study conducted by BMC Women’s Health, lifetime exposure to sexual and
physical violence in Java, one of the provinces in Indonesia, was 22% and 11%. Reasons include
women’s economic independence and husband’s personal characteristics: being unfaithful, using
alcohol, fighting with other men or having witnessed domestic violence during childhood. In
Java, women confirm that those who live in the highlands and are married to poorly educated men
are much more likely to be exposed to lifetime sexual violence. That sexual violence not only
includes coercive sex, but also verbal insults and domestic abuses. That evidence suggests that
Indonesian women, particularly women who live in poor and uneducated conditions, have been
confronting a high degree of gender-based subordination within marital relationships.
Besides the gender violence faced by married women, unmarried young women, or even
girls, possess a higher potentiality to be exposed to gender violence in Indonesia. According to a
nationally representative survey on women and girls’ life experiences survey, 33.4% (1 in 3) of
women and girls ages 15-64 years old have experienced physical and/or sexual violence
committed by sexual and/or non-sexual partners in their lifetime. Gender stereotypes, such as
“boys are tough” and “girls are weak and inferior to men and boys,” play a crucial role in that
violence, resulting from almost unshakable patriarchy in the current Indonesian society.
Moreover, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in Indonesia also reveals the gender
violence experienced by women. According to a study conducted by Lisa Cameron, Bali has the
lowest provincial MMR of 47. All of Java and other islands to the west have rates below 200 per
100,000 live births. In the north, the Gorontalo province has the highest provincial MMR, more
than seven times higher than Bali – 371 deaths per 100,00 live births. This statistic highlights the
fact that the risk faced by mothers during parturition are less life-threatening in more developed
areas such as Bali due to the better sanitary conditions and more advanced medical technology.
As a result, if Indonesia wants to reduce the maternal mortality ratio, the government should
increase its health system responsiveness to the needs of pregnant women, pay more attention to
the geographic disparities in maternal health services in different regions, and increase the supply
of doctors and access to hospitals in poor and rural areas.
The root reason behind the high MMR is related to the historical son preference and
kinship system, as an increasing sex ratio at birth has recently been observed in many parts of
Indonesia. In the 2010 population census, the overall sex ratio of the entire population in the
country has rising over the last thirty years, peaking at 101.2 males per 100 females. In the article
by Christophe Z. Guilmoto, he divides the western and eastern part of Indonesia, suggesting that
the patrilocal populations in the east appear to be those with excessive female mortality, and high
sex ratio of children below 15 years, and significant female mortality in childhood.
In conclusion, gender violence in Indonesia has been revealed in many different areas —
sexual violence faced by both married and unmarried women, high maternal mortality ratio in
poor areas, and a historical son-preferred kinship system. In Indonesia, the gender violence and
birth problem are far more complex than usually assumed, and it points to geography of a gender-
biased system that clearly distinguishes the central island of Java and Bali from the rest of the
patrilineal periphery regions.

Works cited:
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