KARTINI’S DAY
 |
| R.A. KARTINI |
History :
Kartini was born in
Jepara, Central Java on 21 April 1879. Kartini or sometimes known as Raden
Ajeng Kartini, because she was born an aristocratic Javanese family. When Java
was part of the Dutch colony.
Kartini’s father, Sosroningrat,
became regency chief of Jepara and her mother, Ngasirah.
Kartini’s family
allowed her to attend school until she was 12 years old. Here, among other
subjects she learnt to speak Dutch, an unusual accomplishment for Javanese
women at the time. After she turned 12 years old, she was secluded at home, a
common practice among Javanese nobility, to prepare young girls for their
marriage.
Because she could
speak Dutch, she acquired several Dutch pen friends. One of them, a girl by the
name of Rosa Abendanon, became a close friend. Books, newspapers, and European
maganizes fed Kartini’s interest in European feminist thinking and fostered the
desire to improve the conditions of Indigenious
Indonesian women, who at the time had a ver low social status.
Kartini’s concerns
were not only in the area of the emancipation of women, but also other problems
of her society. Kartini saw thet the struggle for women to obtain thir freedom,
autonomy and legal equality was just part of wider movement.
Kartini’s parents
arranged her married to Joyodiningrat the Regency Chief of Rembang, who already
had three wives.
She was married on the
12 November 1903. Her husband understood Kartini’s aims and allowed her to
establish a school for women in the east porch of the Rembang Regency Office
complex. Only Kartini’s son was born on 13 September 1904. A few days later on
17 September 1904 kartini died at the age of 25 years old. She was buried in
Bulu village, Rembang.
Inspire by Kartini or R.A.
Kartini example , The Van Deventer family established R.A Kartini Foundation
which built school for women “Kartini’s
School” in Semarang 1912 , followed by other women’s school in Surabaya ,
Malang, Madiun, Cirebon , Yogyakarta and other areas.
In 1964 , Precident Soekarno
declarated R.A Kartini birth date 21 April as “Kartini’s Day”.
