[Kabar-indonesia] Aceh womens' pain of insurgency and tsunami revealed in play [+NYT/Kuwait]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: NYT: First Time Out, Kuwaiti Women Become a Political Force 

The Jakarta Post
Monday, June 26, 2006

Feature

Play reveals voice of tsunami women 

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It has been more than a year and a-half since the tsunami destroyed many 
parts of Aceh, killing more than a hundred thousand people in the area and leaving 
countless others homeless. 

All this, after people in the province were at the receiving end of a 
decades-long conflict between separatists and government troops. 

A group of Acehnese women from the Inong Aceh Theater reminded Jakartans of 
the pain of the insurgency and the tsunami in a recent performance, Tsunami & 
Tsunami, at the National Commission on Women's offices in Central Jakarta. 

The women hail from a small village called Lamnga in Aceh Besar, which was 
mostly destroyed by the waves. 

The play begins with 19 actors dressed in somber prayer clothes entering an 
unadorned stage and chanting solemnly. 

The suspense sets in when the women reenact the terror of the tsunami. Two 
actors cry, their voices and bodies shaking as they relive attempting to find 
their children and other loved ones swept away by the deluge. 

Their tears are real. Their facial expressions, body language and the 
articulation of their despair are also genuine -- a level of authenticity that could 
hardly be matched, even by the country's most talented actors. 

Some members of the audience wept along with the players, others sat still on 
their seats but clearly struggled to hold off heavy emotions. There was a 
brief, awkward silence. 

Which did not last too long -- because the actors moved on, to portray their 
range of experiences after the tsunami. 

In a frank and often humorous way, they took digs at the many groups involved 
in the Aceh reconstruction process. Among their targets were the Aceh-Nias 
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR), the uncountable number of NGOs 
at the scene and the media. 

In one scene, the women mocked the immediate presence of local, national and 
international aid groups in Aceh. 

Members of NGOs kept asking them for data they did not have to get funding 
for projects that never eventuated, without listening to what they had to say, 
or taking their emotions into account. 

"Money is not the answer to our problems. We need friends to share our 
feelings with. We don't need programs that we do not understand," said an actor, 
Hafsah, after the play. 

Germany-based director Lena Simanjuntak-Mertes said the women developed the 
play by themselves. 

"I only put a few artistic touches into the story," Lena, a graduate of the 
Jakarta Arts Institute, said. 

"I wanted to keep a distance from the story and let the actors remain 
independent. However, I often had to go backstage because I cried so often during the 
rehearsals. I could feel their pain." 

Lena has been developing community theater for the past eight years, "as a 
tool to educate and empower people, particularly women". 

"They are brave women. The play helps them express their unbearable misery 
and emotion, as it is impossible to forget such huge pain. 

"But I believe theater will change them, from victims into survivors." 

-----------------------------------------

The New York Times
Monday, June 26, 2006

First Time Out, Kuwaiti Women Become a Political Force 

By HASSAN M. FATTAH

KUWAIT, June 24 -- They came, young and old, rich and poor, eager to hear the 
latest stump speech and even more eager to make their presence felt. 

Hundreds of voters gathered Saturday night in a cavernous wedding hall in a 
conservative suburb of Kuwait City to hear Walid al-Tabtabaei, an incumbent 
Islamist candidate, give one of his last speeches before the parliamentary 
elections on Thursday. The voters compared notes on candidates and debated their 
merits. 

One thing set them apart from the voters who attended political rallies in 
past elections here, though: almost all were women. 

"The M.P.'s used to vote against us; now they are wooing us to vote for 
them," said Lulua Abdullah al-Omari, a mother of four, who sat in the front row and 
was eager to talk politics. "Women suddenly have more value in this society."

Kuwait's women won their long fight for suffrage and to run for office last 
year, and they have quickly risen from political nonentities to the most 
sought-after constituency. Many political analysts expect the entry of women in the 
political process to redraw the political map and to hold significant sway 
over the 50-member Parliament in the years to come as they become an Arab version 
of the soccer mom. That new power will give women a lot more say on issues 
like corruption, economic development and family law. 

By numbers alone, women outnumber men among potential voters by about a 
third, in part because they were automatically registered while men have had to 
register individually, and in part because members of the Kuwaiti military and 
other security forces are not allowed to vote. 

Women have also embraced the elections with a first-timer's zeal, and have 
been more willing than many Kuwaiti men to skip World Cup games to hear 
candidates' speeches, for example, and to study the candidates' qualifications and 
platforms. 

Parliament voted to give women voting rights in May 2005 in a surprise vote 
only two weeks after it voted against allowing them to vote in local elections. 
It was believed to have been pushed through by the prime minister, Sheik 
Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, now the emir, before a trip to Washington. Parliament 
removed the word "men" from an article of the voting law. 

Members of Parliament like Mr. Tabtabaei vigorously resisted the effort and 
voted against the measure, insisting that it contradicted Islamic teachings. 
But now even those men have made a point of holding special women's events as 
they campaign, setting up special sections for women in air-conditioned tents 
outfitted with comfortable chairs, lots of food and attentive campaign staff 
ready to answer any question. 

Even accusations of corruption have revolved around women this election: one 
candidate accused of buying votes, a common mode of corruption here, is 
rumored to have given out luxury handbags filled with money. Three women who said 
they were offered bribes filed a report with a local elections watchdog group 
and the Ministry of Interior, which is investigating the matter. The report 
produced a forceful denial by one candidate, Jamal al-Omar, although he had not 
been publicly identified. 

"It seems like our role has become more important than the men's," said Muna 
al-Jassim, who with her daughter Aisha has been making the rounds of various 
candidates in the 10th District, one of the most heavily contested. "Every 
election things happened that we were excluded from. We were only observers just 
watching from the outside. Now we're insiders."

Compared with parliamentary elections in many other countries, this election 
is tiny: only about 200,000 women and 145,000 men are eligible to vote. A 
total of 253 candidates, including 28 women, are vying for one of the two seats in 
each of the country's 25 districts. But unlike other parliaments and 
legislative bodies in the Middle East, Kuwait's can influence the country's policies 
and is generally independent of the emir, who holds executive powers. 

"These elections are all about corruption," said Dahem al-Kahtani, a 
columnist for the Kuwaiti daily Al Rai al Aam and a ministerial adviser. "The question 
they will ultimately answer is this: Will this country be just another 
sheikdom or a nation of institutions?"

This year's elections are especially pivotal, say political analysts, for 
their effect on the country's reform efforts and economic development programs. 
The next Parliament will probably decide on a disputed plan to open Kuwait's 
northern oil fields to development by foreign companies, a battle left 
unresolved by the last Parliament. They will also be choosing sides over redistricting 
efforts and government oversight. 

But while men's voting patterns in Kuwait have been widely studied and 
predicted, the women's vote could be surprising. 

"Everyone agrees that women will change things dramatically," Mr. Kahtani 
said. "The problem is that nobody really knows how."

But a poll by the Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas indicated most women will probably 
be influenced by their husbands' choices or will vote for candidates with 
well-known names.

The elections were originally scheduled for next year, but in a surprise move 
last month, Mr. Sabah, the emir, dissolved Parliament and called for new 
elections, after a heated battle over a proposed redistricting law paralyzed the 
government. 

For the 28 women running for parliamentary seats, who had been counting on 
having that extra year to build name recognition, the new schedule has meant a 
scramble to win supporters. Several of the women have come under attack from 
conservatives, whose backers have defaced and ripped the women's election 
banners. One candidate even received threats, Reuters reported. But the candidates 
insist that such acts have not deterred them. 

"I was always a believer that women would want to get involved in politics, 
they just needed the right to do so," said Rula Dashti, a longtime women's 
rights campaigner and a candidate for a seat in the 10th District. "It's clear now 
that women will be involved in a big way."

Most women's rights workers expect that at best one or two women may win 
seats. Nevertheless, allowing women to vote has encouraged conservatives like Mr. 
Tabtabaei to become more pragmatic. He insisted that he always supported 
giving the vote to women but was against allowing women to run for office. On 
Saturday night, he sought to emphasize his support of his newfound voting base in a 
speech entitled "Women and Political Awareness."

"For the men, we held one rally," he said, and added, apparently hoping to 
impress the women, "For you ladies, we have held five." 

------------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------