With their roles, women can serve as mothers of the nation but they should show strong commitments as they have to play such significant roles as educators, equal partners with men, guardians of human development, women strugglers, and persons belonging to the younger generation.
Women also play an important role in maintaining the harmony in their respective families which are home to the younger generations who are expected to give significant contributions to the national development for the interests of the people and the country.
Women are now encouraging and empowering themselves to be figures, who strengthen their identity in partnership with men to build the nation and promote its good image both at home and overseas.
They are now gathering under the auspices of the Indonesian Women`s Congress known as Kowani to organize a conference in cooperation with the International Council of Women (ICW) that is holding its 35th anniversary of its general assembly on September 13-18, 2018, in Indonesia`s special region of Yogyakarta.
In the education sector, the women were talking on the aforementioned topics in a workshop under the theme `Women`s Empowerment through Education`.
As educators, they are expected to give guidance to the people especially those belonging to the younger generation to make them persons of excellence.
President of the National Council of Women Australia Barbara Baikie stated that it is important for young women to see what they can ultimately strive to push boundaries and further prove that young girls and women can succeed.
She believed that all of that can be achieved with education, as she reiterated that it is important to start at a young age, so that they can grow to be accustomed to studying measures early.
Children who go to pre-school are proven to do much better at school showing the importance of early education once more, she added.
In terms of serving their husbands, they can make them equal partners in many aspects of life including that in the development of entrepreneurship by involving local wisdom, which is expected to make local products worth of exports.
Meanwhile, the Kowani said it is focusing its attention on grooming more women to become national leaders and decision makers on national development.
"Kowani has held leadership trainings for young women hoping to turn out strong female leaders with character both for the public and private sectors," Kowani`s chairwoman Giwo Rubianto Wiyogo addressing 159 delegates of the International Council of Women (ICW) from 49 countries here on Saturday.
Therefore, education becomes the main focus of the country`s oldest and largest women`s organization to turn out more female leaders in the future, Giwo said.
"Education has always been high in the agenda of Kowani since it was established and held its first congress in December 1928," said Giwo who was just elected the ICW`s vice president on Saturday, September 15, 2018, for the next three years term.
She said education and training for women at present would be given with more emphasis on the importance of the role of "Mothers of the Nation" carrying a determinant role in the national advancement.
The words of Mothers of the Nation carry an ideal portrait of Indonesian women with strong leadership, said Wiyogo who became one of the newly elected five ICW vice presidents from seven candidates submitted in the ballot.
The seven candidates in the election of the ICW vice president are Linda C. Liu from Taiwan, with 96 votes; Doris Bingley from Malta, with 91 votes; Jamal Hermes Ghibril from Lebanon, with 84 votes; Fatma Fatos Inal from Turkey, with 69 votes; and Giwo Rubianto Wiyogo from Indonesia, with 62 votes.
Monthip Sriratana Tabucanon from Thailand, with 35 votes, and Pushpa Hedge from India, with 54 votes, were the two other two candidates, who were not elected.
Wiyogo is chairperson of Kowani, the oldest and largest women`s organization in Indonesia, with a total membership of 62 million women across Indonesia.
Eradicating terrorism
Interestingly, women are ready to take part in measures to eradicate any kind of terrorist acts as the spread of radicalism and terrorism still threaten Indonesia, and the empowerment of women is believed to be part of important elements for resolving the serious threats due to the women`s strategic roles.
It is Yenny Wahid, director of the Wahid Institute, who raised the importance of empowering women in the war on terrorism when speaking at the second session of the National Gathering of One Thousand Indonesian Women`s Organizations being held along with the convening of the 35th ICW in Yogyakarta.
The daughter of late former president Abdurrahman Wahid argued that many women have got trapped in a vicious circle of radicalism and terrorism. Several of them have even been recruited as terrorists.
The involvements of women and children in the acts of terrorism are now evident and become a serious threat to Indonesia. This evidence can be seen from a deadly attack on a church in the East Java city of Surabaya last May.
The Indonesian women should be empowered to enable them to refuse such this misleading doctrine because each of men and women must be responsible for whatever they have done.
In the meantime, a member of the ICW`s Steering Committee Elizabeth Newman said, "women must benefit the family, the environment, the community, without forgetting themselves. It`s difficult, right?" she told Antara opening the conversation.
To her own question about multi-roles women that are difficult to do, Elisabeth answered lightly that the key to making them easier is to keep moving.
"Just do it, don`t stop. We need half a century to get equal pay, and maybe even longer to realize all the resolutions, but we can never stop," she said.
Editing by Rahmad Nasution
(T.B005/A/R013/R013) 15-09-2018 18:24:05
Reporter: Bambang Purwanto
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
