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Women's and Feminist Activism in Southeast Asia

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DOI: 10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss593

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Women’s and Feminist
Activism in Southeast
Asia
SHARON A. BONG
Monash University, Malaysia
Women’s/feminist activism in Southeast Asia
(SEA) offers a reimagining of the global
vision and practice of women’s human rights.
It does so by drawing from both rights-based
and faith-based frameworks in mobilizing
gender equality and gender equity for women
and men and, by extension, gender and sexual
minorities.
The conflation of women’s activism and
feminist activism faithfully reflects the histor-
ical privileging of a woman-centered activism
and one that is sustained by campaigns
against violence against women (VAW)
or gender-based violence (GBV) within
women’s non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) in Southeast Asia. In this sense,
women’s/feminist activism is tied to the gen-
esis of most women’s NGOs in this region,
and this focus remains the current emphasis
given the transnational exacerbation of VAW
or GBV. Global trends of VAW and GBV
include but are not limited to trafficking in
human persons and the gendered impact of
changing configurations of marriage (e.g.,
mail-order brides), migration, ethnic and
religious conflict, state-sponsored victimiza-
tion (e.g., trauma inflicted on women during
the Khmer Rouge regime, sexual slavery of
Muslim Rohingya women in Myanmar), and
so on. Yet, in another sense, the conflation of
women’s activism and feminist activism less
faithfully reflects the ethos of some women’s
NGOs. This is because some women’s NGOs
The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, First Edition. Edited by Nancy A. Naples.
© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss593
maintain reservations in identifying as fem-
inist, as articulated in their organizational
vision and mission statements even though
the nature of advocacy or services that they
offer are aimed at the elimination of gender
inequality and inequity. Eschewing a feminist
identity is politically strategic given that
Southeast Asian states often position human
rights and women’s human rights as western
values that are antithetical to Asian values
(e.g., a rhetoric propagated by the then prime
ministers of Malaysia and Singapore in the
1980s that privileges the common good over
and above individual well-being).
In view of this tension, the term women’s/
feminist activism henceforth refers to both
women’s NGOs that identify as “feminist”
and those who do so albeit to a lesser extent.
Women’s/feminist activism in Southeast Asia
coheres with a feminist postcolonial frame-
work within an intellectual social context.
The essential understanding of feminism,
when operationalized, would be the advance-
ment of women’s human rights in realizing
gender equality and gender equity. These two
concepts are differentiated. Gender equality
is often appreciated as sameness between
genders; women having the equal right to
vote as men, for instance. Whereas gender
equity takes into account the ways in which
women are differently and disproportionately
affected by GBV, which, in turn, calls for
woman-centered or women-specific policies
and agendas and in some cases, affirmative
action.
Equality as such – between men and
women and even among women from the
north and south, first worlds and developing
worlds – is not always synonymous with
sameness. These differences that matter are
made more apparent when states attempt
2 WOMEN’S AND FEMINIST ACTIVISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
to mainstream women’s human rights
in national developmental projects: from
women in development (which foregrounds
the ways women are differently and dispro-
portionately affected by poverty, for instance)
to the more integrative gender and devel-
opment approaches (which uses a gendered
lens, to view the gendered dimensions of
structural poverty).
Feminist postcolonial approach privileges
not only gender but also ethnicity, class,
cultures, and religions as analytical categories
in making sense of gender inequalities and
gender inequities in Asia. As such, there
is not just one definition of feminism; it is
not a monolithic body of knowledge and
practices. The emergence of feminist post-
colonial theory offers a counter-discourse
that challenges the unexamined assumptions
of white, western, and middle-class feminists.
Its ethos seeks to de-colonize (hence the
prefix “post” in postcolonial) by opening
up feminisms that have greater resonance
with the lived realities of Southeast Asia, in
particular its poverty and the plurality of its
political, social, and cultural contexts.
Whereas first-wave feminisms (e.g., lib-
eral, radical, or lesbian feminism) positioned
women as an oppressed class under the
rubric of “sisterhood is global,” feminist-
postcolonial theorists, as third-wave femi-
nists, posit that not all women are oppressed
or oppressed in the same way. Identity
politics that are integral to setting apart
Asian women’s/feminist activism particularly
within the arena of global women’s human
rights, calls for a degree of essentialism:
that the “Asian woman” is marginalized and
triply marginalized on account of her sex,
her poverty, her lower status as an ethnic,
cultural, religious, and sexual minority.
However, in drawing the parameters
of, making sense of and practicing Asian
women’s feminisms, it is important to avoid
the pitfall of homogenization; flattening
out differences among Asian women under
the tyranny of sameness, as not all Asian
women are oppressed or oppressed in the
same way. And assigning the fixed attribute
of victimhood to “Asian women,” however
politically strategic in mobilizing resources
(e.g., foreign funding, political will of gov-
ernments, consciousness-raising of the
public), also risks the pitfall of reductionism
where women are not just disempowered
but also empowered as activists and fem-
inist activists. As negotiations in claiming
and reevaluating a politics of identity of
women’s/feminist activism in Southeast Asia
remain a continuing challenge, the prefix
“post” in postcolonial does not suggest that
the work is done. But it does point to the
coming-of-age of women’s/feminist activisms
in this Asian region.
SEA’s women’s/feminist activism engages
with the rhetoric and practice of women’s
human rights. Framed within a feminist post-
colonial perspective, SEA’s women’s/feminist
activism takes into account these ideological
and pragmatic contestations and pluralities
on the ground. It does so to more effec-
tively bring global women’s human rights
conventions home, that is, to realize global
women’s human rights at a local level. In
terms of global women’s human rights con-
ventions, the singular women’s treaty is the
1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women
that all Southeast Asian countries are states
parties to in having ratified it, albeit with
reservations. In doing so, governments are
held accountable by incrementally realizing
gender equality and equity for women – in
overcoming these reservations – through
a faithful documentation of achievements
and obstacles in periodic government
reports to the CEDAW Committee. The
complementary Shadow Report provided by
women’s/feminist NGOs is often positioned
as a counter-narrative to the government
 WOMEN’S AND FEMINIST ACTIVISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
report on the country-specific position and
treatment of women and the girl-child. The
Shadow Report inadvertently also showcases
good practices of women’s/feminist activisms
in working together with states in overcom-
ing reservations in operationalizing the goals
of CEDAW.
Some of these good practices involving
women’s/feminist activisms in Southeast Asia
include, among many others: the Vietnam
Women’s Union, founded in 1930, which
was initially immersed in mobilizing women
in nationalist struggles, for example, anti-
feudalism and anti-imperialism movements
led by the Communist Party to struggle for
the “power of the people,” subsequently,
resistance against American aggressors and
is currently mandated to protect women’s
legitimate rights and strive for gender equal-
ity with achievements such as the new Law
on Gender Equality signed in 2006 (Chiri-
costa 2010, 139); GABRIELA Philippines,
established in 1984, is a nationwide alliance
of over 200 women’s NGOs at the forefront
of not only women’s rights but also the
“Filipino women’s struggle for freedom and
democracy”; the Foundation For Women
in Thailand formed in 1984, “implements
activities by applying human rights princi-
ples” aimed at “respecting, protecting, and
promoting the rights of individual women
and girl child,” launched a community-based
education project (Kamla) to combat child
prostitution in 1988 as well as campaigned for
safe migration and community participation
in protecting workers against trafficking;
the Joint Action Group Against Violence
Against Women formed in 1985, now the
Joint Action Group for Gender Equality
(JAG) of Malaysia, a coalition of women’s
NGOs, had spearheaded multiple campaigns
and legal reform efforts, leading to milestones
as the 1994 Domestic Violence Act and the
inclusion of “gender” under Article 8(2) of
the Federal Constitution in 2001; AWARE
3
Singapore, founded in 1985, whose vision is
to realize “true gender equality,” seeks to pro-
vide a “feminist perspective in the national
dialogue”; Fokupers of Timor-Leste, estab-
lished in 1997, works on the “empowerment
of women from a women’s human rights per-
spective,” investigates women’s human rights
violations and provides support, including
counseling, to women political prisoners,
wives of political prisoners, war widows, and
survivors of violence against women; Kom-
nas Perempuan of Indonesia (formerly, the
National Commission on Violence Against
Women) was formed in 1998 and their mis-
sion is, among others, to “strengthen efforts
to prevent and deal with all forms of violence
against women and to promote survivors’
rights to truth, justice, multidimensional
rehabilitation that includes economic, social,
political and cultural rights based on rights of
self-integrity”; Chab Dai Cambodia, founded
in 2005, is a coalition of over 50 member
organizations working to address sexual
abuse and trafficking whose initiative, the
Cambodia Leaning Community, is set up to
hone in collaboration and encourage best
practices among anti-trafficking NGOs, from
grassroots to large organizations on “raising
the standard of care for survivors and those at
risk of being exploited,” sharing resources and
building capacity; and the Gender Equality
Network of Myanmar is an inclusive network
of over a hundred civil society organizations,
national and international NGOs, UN agen-
cies, and technical resource persons, with the
mandate to “support the development and
implementation of enabling systems, struc-
tures, and practices for the advancement of
women, gender equality, and the realization
of women’s rights in Myanmar.”
A further example of good practice in
bringing CEDAW home is evidenced by
many women’s/feminist NGOs that operate
within rights-based and faith-based frame-
works. The rationale for this lies in the
4 WOMEN’S AND FEMINIST ACTIVISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
diversity of cultures and religions in South-
east Asia that have an impact on the rhetoric
and practice of women’s human rights.
This hyphenated strategy – in localizing a
global vision and potentially globalizing a
local practice – offers a unique positioning
of women’s human rights as not merely
secularist (in dismissing or undervaluing
cultural and religious considerations). It
offers a standpoint and praxis, a critical
relativism (Bong 2006) that, in embracing
both the universalism of women’s human
rights and the particularities of cultures and
religions, more effectively realizes gender
equality. Critical relativism considers the
lived realities of women and men whose lives,
in particular their sexual and reproductive
health and rights, remain greatly influenced
by cultures and religions. The Philippines is
overwhelmingly Catholic as is Timor-Leste;
Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim
population globally; Brunei Darrusalam is
now an Islamic State with shari’a law recently
imposed; Malaysia is often mistaken as one
given its state-sponsored Islamization; and
Buddhism is the dominant spirituality of
Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Singapore,
Thailand, and Vietnam.
The following selected initiatives embody
the intersection of politicizing spiritu-
ality and spiritualizing politics within
women’s/feminist activism in Southeast Asia.
To politicize spirituality is to direct one’s
faith towards political and social change and
to spiritualize politics is to direct the state’s
policies and programs towards social justice
(which includes gender equality) and inclu-
siveness. Women’s/feminist activism that
operates from rights-based and faith-based
frameworks, politicizes spirituality and, in
doing so, potentially, spiritualizes politics. In
terms of Muslim women’s/feminist activism
in Southeast Asia to politicize spirituality is
what Rinaldo terms as “pious critical agency”
and “pious activating agency” (2013, 19):
where the former engages with “the inter-
pretation of texts” whilst the latter deploys
religious texts to make claims for political
and social change. To illustrate, the Sisters
in Islam’s (Malaysia) long-term objective,
among others, is “to promote a framework of
women’s rights in Islam which takes into con-
sideration women’s experiences and realities,”
which it articulates and implements through
its press statements, publications (often
banned), and gender-sensitization train-
ing amid personal threats including death
threats. SIS has vocally and visibly cham-
pioned women’s rights on issues as diverse
as Muslim family law (e.g., polygamy, child
marriage, divorce), hudud (Islamic law), and
greater civil and political liberties that have
periodically come under threat (e.g., sedition
law) that allows the government to suppress
the freedom of expression as well as the moral
policing of gender and sexual minorities, for
example, mak nyahs or male-to-female trans
persons.
In terms of Catholic women’s/feminist
activism in Southeast Asia, Talitha Kum
Southeast Asia (meaning little girl, arise, in
Aramaic), is part of the International Net-
work of Consecrated Religious (i.e., Catholic
sisters) aimed at exchanging information and
referrals for integration, sharing modules
for the schools, communities, congregations
and networking for advocacy, lobbying, and
mobilization to “counteract human traffick-
ing.” Its representatives in Southeast Asia are
based in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and
Timor-Leste. Its vision “to renew the values of
the church to respect and uphold the dignity
of women and men created in the image and
likeness of God” coalesces with a fundamental
human liberty which runs counter to slavery
in any form. The involvement of “feminist
nuns” in women’s/feminist NGOs on pros-
titution (Roces 2009) and reclaiming faith
as a feminist practice by nuns of the Mis-
sionary Benedictine congregation in their
 WOMEN’S AND FEMINIST ACTIVISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
negotiation of their gendered, religious, and
national identities (Claussen 2001) are well
documented.
In terms of Buddhist women’s/feminist
activism in Southeast Asia, Venerable Dham-
mananda Bhikkhuni, formerly Chatsumarn
Kabilsingh, a well-known academic, is the
first Thai woman to receive bhikkhuni ordina-
tion (monkhood) in the Theravada tradition.
Along with three other bhikkhunis, she
founded Sakyadhita International Network
of Buddhist Women, which has been inte-
gral in canvassing for the restoration of the
bhikkhuni order globally (Falk 2010). The
bhikkhuni movement explicitly challenges the
official standpoint that deems the bhikkhuni
order as extinct and their continued rejection
by the Thai sangha (monks). By according
legitimacy to bhikkhunis, Sakyadhita realizes
gender equality within the Buddhist world
order.
Future directions of women’s/feminist
activism on SRHR concerns lies in com-
plementary sexuality rights activism that is
well supported by the Yogyakarta Principles
drafted in 2006 on comprehensive human
rights standards on sexual orientation and
gender identity (Wieringa 2013).
SEE ALSO: Feminism in Southeast Asia;
Gender Equality; LGBT Activism in Southeast
Asia; Women’s and Feminist Organizations in
South Asia
REFERENCES
Bong, Sharon A. 2006. The Tension between
Women’s Rights and Religions: The Case of
Malaysia. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.
View publication stats
5
Chiricosta, Alessandra. 2010. “Following the Trail
of the Fairy-Bird: The Search for a Uniquely
Vietnamese Feminist Movement.” In Women’s
Movements in Asia: Feminisms and Transna-
tional Activism, edited by Mina Roces and
Louise Edwards, 124–143. London: Routledge.
Claussen, Heather L. 2001. Unconventional Sister-
hood: Feminist Catholic Nuns in the Philippines.
Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Falk, Monica Lindberg. 2010. “Feminism, Bud-
dhism and Transnational Women’s Movements
in Thailand.” In Women’s Movements in Asia:
Feminisms and Transnational Activism, edited by
Mina Roces and Louise Edwards, 110–123. Lon-
don: Routledge.
Rinaldo, Rachel. 2013. Mobilizing Piety: Islam and
Feminism in Indonesia. Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press.
Roces, Mina. 2009. “Prostitution, Women’s Move-
ments and the Victim Narrative in the Philip-
pines.” Women’s Studies International Forum,
32(4): 270–280.
Wieringa, Saskia E. 2013. “Marriage Equality
in Indonesia? Unruly Bodies, Subversive Part-
ners and Legal Implications.” The Equal Rights
Review, 10: 97–110.
FURTHER READING
Blackburn, Susan, and Helen Ting, eds. 2013.
Women in Southeast Asian Nationalist Move-
ments: A Biographical Approach. Singapore:
NUS Press.
Ford, Michele, ed. 2013. Social Activism in South-
east Asia. London: Routledge.
Ng, Cecilia, Maznah Mohamad, and tan beng hui.
2006. Feminism and the Women’s Movement
in Malaysia: An Unsung (R)evolution. London:
Routledge.
Norani Othman, ed. 2013. Muslim Women and the
Challenge of Islamic Extremism, 2nd ed. Petaling
Jaya: SIS Forum (Malaysia).