Indonesian Victim

     So being involved in political culture and women's rights, I always enjoy reading different news sources outside of the United States. My focus in my major is international relations, and I love love love discussing the developing world and the human rights violations that may occur in these areas. This past week, I began following a case that to say the least grinded my gears.

     A school in Depok City, Indonesia recently expelled a female student of theirs because she was raped by a sex trafficking syndicate in the Depok City area. The reason she was expelled was because of the tarnished image that she purportedly placed on the school after the rape. She was fourteen years old. According to the Jakarta Post, she was kidnapped and gang-raped by this well-known syndicate.

 

Anybody else have a problem with this?!?!

 

Fortunately, as I followed the story, the teenage girl was allowed back to the school. After meetings with the school administration, the girl's family and the NCCP, which is the National Commission for Child Protection, the decision was revoked and she was able to go back to school. However, now the Education Minister of Indonesia is facing a lot of scrutiny about his comment, where he expressed that rape victims are sometimes at their own fault and that the girls, "do it for fun, and then allege to the rape". Hey buddy, not only do you have many livid Indonesian mothers and fathers angry at you for that comment, but a ton of feminists around the world, and the majority of sane, educated people around the globe siding with the complete lewdness and inappropriateness of that comment?

 

     All in all, the child is back in school. But has this really solved the problem? She is literally living in a society, where not only is she punished for being raped against her will, but being told it was her fault? Unfortunately, I can say that this is not the only case where this has happened. Most of the time it goes unnoticed, and the girl does not get to go back to school. The only thing I can really say about this is that advocacy and aid need to be proponents in this global world so that one day these horrific things will cease to exist.