Indonesian women assert themselves with martial arts as gender-based violence remains a challenge

An emotionally abusive marriage of 11 years has led Rani Miranti to join a fight club that has trained her in martial arts

An emotionally and physically abusive marriage of 11 years led Rani Miranti to join a fight club that has trained her in martial arts, enabling her to stand up against violence.

Miranti is one of the growing number of Indonesian women who are taking self-defense classes as gender-based violence remains a challenge in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

“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 children. “Unfortunately, when it suddenly comes, no one can help. So, we need to have self-defense capabilities.”

The National Commission on Violence Against Women, known as Komnas Perempuan, recorded 289,111 cases last year, a decrease of around 12% from 339,782 in 2022, the year when a law on sexual violence was enacted.

However, the commission suggested the latest data represents “a tip of the iceberg" in gender-based violence. The true number of cases is suspected to be significantly higher, it said in the 2023 Komnas Perempuan annual report released in March.

A large number of cases went unreported because of several factors: limited access for victims to complaint services, a weak case documentation system, and a high level of social stigma toward victims of violence, the report said.

Indonesia’s Parliament approved a far-reaching law in 2022 that sets punishment 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 an Islamic boarding school principal to death for raping at least 13 students over five years and impregnating some of them. The girls were between 11 and 14 years old and were raped over several years, drawing public outcry over why he wasn’t caught earlier.

In July, Indonesia’s electoral commission fired its chair after finding him guilty of sexual assault following a complaint by an employee. It was the latest in a series of the country’s high-profile cases of violence against women in a vast archipelago nation of more than 277 million people.

With cases growing, more Indonesian women and girls who feared physical violence turned to alternative ways of ensuring their safety, including self-defense classes and clubs.

For Miranti, whose husband repeatedly attacked and physically abused her, Muay Thai is the most suitable self-defense, as it helps her gain more skills, self-confidence and prevention techniques.

Wearing a red hijab and boxing gloves, the teacher in a Jakarta Islamic primary school demonstrated her skill in pounding a heavy bag and kicking toward her sparring partner. It's part of her training routine in a mixed martial arts course in eastern Jakarta, where she enrolled almost two years ago after she decided to get out of her abusive marriage in 2018.

With origins in Thailand, Muay Thai is a form of kickboxing that includes knee and elbow strikes, kicks and punches.

“Now, I have a way. … I have the skill to fight back,” Miranti said. “But even more importantly, I have learned to avoid situations by being more aware of my surroundings."

Miranti's female coach, Himattul Hasanah, said she was overwhelmed by the increasing demand of women who want to learn martial arts, especially in private training, as female Muay Thai instructors are hard to find.

“Many aren’t going to feel comfortable to be coached by male instructors, or need a private class at home,” she added.

She said that most of the women who have attended her self-defense classes are timid, with some experiencing abuse in the past.

“Learning physical self-defense not only gives the tools to control their reactions to negative situations, but also can build the confidence for mental defense too,” Hasanah said.

Her husband, professional MMA fighter Rizal Zulmi, said the rising trend of women who are learning martial arts shows abusers and criminals that “not all women are easy prey.”

The pair of martial arts coaches opened BKT Fight Club three years ago with around 40 students.

“Combat sports have recently become popular among women," said Zulmi, who won at least 30 medals at regional, national and international levels. “They need this kind of martial arts for self-defense amid rampant crimes that happened to women.”

Rangi Wirantika Sudrajat, another Indonesian woman who was taking the MMA class, said physical training in martial arts has contributed most to her duties as a general practitioner at the Medecins Sans Frontières, widely known as Doctors Without Borders.

The 31-year-old doctor has been deployed to several refugee camps in Pakistan, Yemen, South Sudan, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. She said that martial arts not only builds her self-confidence and physical strength, but also serves as stress management.

“I can channel all my pent-up emotions, anger and sadness in healthy way through Muay Thai,” she said.

Andy Yentriyani, the chief commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, welcomed the phenomenon of more women participating in self-defense classes.

“This is of course very important, because sometimes there are many victims who are so shocked that they cannot have any response to what happened to them,” Yentriyani said. “And when they realize, it can be too late or can be a very long process.”

Among the recorded types of violence that occurred in private spaces are attempted rape, marital rape, forced abortion and incest. The majority of victims were students between the ages of 18 and 24 years, while the majority of reported perpetrators were their former or current male partners.

Almost all the victims were younger and had a lower level of education than their perpetrators, indicating that violence against women often involved a power imbalance, Yentriyani said.

She said that more people had reported sexual harassment in 2023, a year after the sexual violence law was enacted. Her commission received almost 800 reports on online and physical sexual harassment last year, around four times the 200 reported rape cases it received over the same period.

“Many in our society still consider sexual violence cases to be something disgraceful and embarrassing for female victims," Yentriyani said, and many families then decide not to report it. “We still often see situations of silencing victims, including violence against wives.”

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Achmad Ibrahim, Andi Jatmiko and Fadlan Syam contributed to this report.