Propaganda and Sexual Panics in Indonesia
MISS 4 - May 6
Propaganda and Sexual Panics in Indonesia
Presenter - Nursyahbani (Nur) Katjasungkana and Saskia Wieringa
Indonesia had known two sexual moral panics. The first was in 1965 when the progressive women’s organization Gerwani was accused of sexual debauchery. This slander incited army and militia to murder between 500,000 and one million people. The second started in late 2015 where Indonesia's LGBT community was attacked and presented as a threat to the nation. In this seminar Saskia and Nur discussed the background of these two campaigns, in the light of the current situation of a decline of democracy, the rise of majoritarian conservative Muslim values, the continued power of the country’s security forces and the economic and political oligarchy. The key question asked in this seminar were: How can the rule of law, human, women’s and sexual rights be strengthened? The Anti-Sexual Violence Bill and the Family Resilience Bill will be used as an illustration.