[APFF Echoes] A Story from APFF – A Heart-Touching Grassroots Feminist Movement

_{By: Martha Hebi, SOPAN Sumba (Solidarity for women and Children Sumba), Indonesia}

I am Martha Hebi from Sumba Island, Indonesia. My organization is SOPAN Sumba (Solidarity for women and Children Sumba) . I am very happy to be one of the participants in APFF. This is my first time as a participant and also organizing our workshop on the topic of Pushing Forward Social Transformation Against Gender Based Harmful Traditional Practice. Here our team KOMNAS Perempuan (The Indonesian National Commission on Violence Against Women) and SOPAN Sumba (Solidarity for women and Children Sumba) shared our experiences in advocating the issue of bride abduction/kidnapping marriage from the grassroots level to the national level and finally we are at APFF. I am happy because we can share the issue that we are fighting for in a global forum and also to invite more friends to fight with us. I met friends who have the same issues that they are fighting for. In this activity, I met friends from various countries with very interesting issues. There were two plenary sessions that really touched my feelings.

I really appreciated it because I can learn from 2 plenaries. Namely:

1. On September 12th, I was involved in a plenary about Knock Knock, have you survived?: The survival story of struggling feminists in South Korea, by KNOW. In this session I really appreciated the courage to speak up against sexual harassment committed by public officials in South Korea.

1. On the 13th, I was involved in a plenary about Feminist Storytelling, Khabar Lahariya. In this plenary, I saw similarities in the conditions of caste in India and on Sumba Island, Indonesia. In Sumba there are also castes, although slightly different from the castes in Sumba. In Sumba, the people from the lowest caste are owned by the nobility. They cannot speak to the public. I am amazed at Mira from the Dalit Caste whose capacity was strengthened by the institution, Khabar Lahariya. Mira is an inspiring woman who dares to speak up and become a leader.