JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An emotionally and physically abusive 11-year marriage led Rani Miranti to join a fight club that trained her in martial arts, enabling her to resist violence.
Miranti is one of a growing number of Indonesian women taking self-defense classes as gender-based violence remains a problem in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.
“Government protection usually comes after violence has happened, while we never know when it will come,” said the 38-year-old single parent of three. “Unfortunately, no one can help if it comes suddenly. So we have to have self-defense capabilities.”
The National Commission against Violence against Women, better known as Komnas Perempuan, recorded 289,111 cases last year, a decrease of about 12% from 339,782 in 2022, the year a law against sexual violence was passed.
However, the commission suggested that the latest data represented “the tip of the iceberg” in gender-based violence, with the true number of cases likely to be significantly higher, according to the Komnas Perempuan annual report for 2023, published in March.
A large number of cases went unreported due to several factors: limited access for victims to complaint services, a weak system for documenting cases and high social stigma against victims of violence, the report said.
Indonesia’s parliament passed a far-reaching law in 2022 that sets penalties for sexual violence and guarantees provisions, restitution or other remedies for victims and survivors.
The law was passed a week after an Indonesian high court sentenced to death the director of an Islamic boarding school for raping at least 13 students over five years and impregnating some of them. The girls were aged between 11 and 14 and were raped over several years, sparking public outrage over why he was not caught sooner.
In July, Indonesia’s election commission fired its chairman after finding him guilty of sexual abuse following a complaint from an employee, the latest in a string of high-profile cases of violence against women in a sprawling archipelago of more than 277 million people.
As the number of cases increased, more Indonesian women and girls fearing physical violence turned to alternative ways to ensure their safety, such as self-defense classes and clubs.
For Miranti, who was repeatedly attacked and physically abused by her husband, Muay Thai is the most suitable self-defense as it helps her develop more skills, self-confidence and preventive techniques.
Wearing a red hijab and boxing gloves, the teacher at a Muslim primary school in Jakarta demonstrated her skills in hitting a punching bag and kicking her sparring partner. It’s part of her training routine at a mixed martial arts class in East Jakarta, which she enrolled in nearly two years ago after deciding to leave her abusive marriage in 2018.
Muay Thai is a form of kickboxing that originated in Thailand and involves knee and elbow strikes, kicks and punches.
“Now I have a way. … I have the ability to fight back,” Miranti said. “But more importantly, I’ve learned to avoid situations by being more aware of my surroundings.”
Miranti’s female coach, Rahimatul Hasanah, said she has been overwhelmed by the increasing demand from women wanting to learn martial arts, especially in the form of private training, as female Muay Thai instructors are hard to find.
“Many will not feel comfortable being coached by male instructors, or may need private lessons at home,” she added.
She said most of the women who take her self-defense classes are shy and some have experienced abuse in the past.
“Learning physical self-defense not only gives you the tools to control your reactions to negative situations, but can also increase your confidence in mental defense,” Hasanah said.
Her husband, professional MMA fighter Rizal Zulmi, said the rising trend of women learning martial arts shows abusers and criminals that “not all women are easy prey.”
The two martial arts coaches opened the BKT Fight Club three years ago with about 40 students.
“Martial arts have become popular among women recently,” said Zulmi, who has won at least 30 medals at regional, national and international levels. “They need these kinds of martial arts for self-defense amid the widespread crimes that are happening to women.”
Rangi Wirantika Sudrajat, another Indonesian woman who took the MMA class, said that physical training in martial arts has contributed most to her duties as a family doctor with Doctors Without Borders.
The 31-year-old doctor has been deployed to refugee camps in Pakistan, Yemen, South Sudan, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. She said martial arts not only boost her confidence and physical strength, but also serve as stress management.
“I can channel all my pent up emotions, anger and sadness in a healthy way through Muay Thai,” she said.
Andy Yentriyani, Chief Commissioner of the National Commission to Combat Violence Against Women, welcomed the fact that more women are taking part in self-defense classes.
“This is of course very important, because sometimes there are many victims who are so shocked that they cannot have a reaction to what happened to them,” Yentriyani said. “And when they realize it, it can be too late or it can be a very long process.”
Among the recorded forms of violence that occurred in private spaces were attempted rape, marital rape, forced abortion and incest. The majority of victims were students between the ages of 18 and 24, while the majority of reported perpetrators were their former or current male partners.
Almost all victims were younger and had a lower level of education than the perpetrators. According to Yentriyani, this indicates that violence against women is often related to an inequality of power.
She said more people had reported sexual harassment in 2023, a year after the Sexual Violence Act was passed. Her committee received nearly 800 reports of online and physical sexual harassment last year, about four times as many as the 200 reported rape cases it received during the same period.
“Many in our society still consider cases of sexual violence as something shameful and embarrassing for female victims,” Yentriyani said, and many families then choose not to report it. “We still often see situations where victims are silenced, including violence against women.”
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This story corrects Rahimatul Hasanah’s first name. It is Rahimatul, not Himattul.
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Achmad Ibrahim, Andi Jatmiko and Fadlan Syam contributed to this report.
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