In the early 1900's Indonesian women experienced an emancipation. This came about because of the hard work of a woman named Ibu Kartini. Before this time, girls were only allowed to go to school until they were 11 and then they had to stay home and study to be a housewife. They were not allowed to go anywhere alone and were only allowed to talk with relatives. They also had to wear a head scarf and veil in public. Girls were often married off at a very young age. Now women can hold any position, officially, but unoffically the muslim faith forbids women from holding positions of authority. But this country is not officially a muslim country. The charter (so to speak) of this country is not a religious one, but the reality is that this is the world's most populous country of muslims. About 88% (I think) of the people here are muslim. But, yesterday I was talking with my neighbour and she told me that her mom was 13 when she got married and her dad was about 16. Yikes, that's young. Ibu Sri said that this was normal for in the kampungs, or villages. She says that it still happens today, but not as often. There is actually a rule from the government that girls have to be 18 to get married, but parents will lie to get around it. The reasons that parents do this is so that their daughter doesn't have a chance to be defiled before marriage and so that they are no longer responsible for her and don't have to pay for her to go to school. They think it is just better if their daughters just get married.
Yesterday was the neighbour girl's (Gerda, whose brother gets french fries for breakfast every morning) birthday. She turned 12. But here when a child is that old there are no presents and there is no party. Especially for people of the kampung. They feel that the money would be better spent on rice. I felt rather sorry for her, but her mom said that the kids are just used to it and don't know any different.