Skip to main content

Two Women’s Testimonies of Sexual Violence During the 1965–1966 Indonesian Massacres

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover The Indonesian Genocide of 1965

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Genocide ((PSHG))

Abstract

This chapter investigates some of the gendered forms of violence perpetrated during the Indonesian genocide of 1965–1966. Specifically, it examines the accounts of two women from West Sumatra, Ibu Jusufa and Ibu Tati, in which they discuss their experiences of this violence. In their testimonies, they gave witness to a range of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, sexual harassment and assault, forms of sexual enslavement, and pregnancy as a result of rape. Pohlman argues that these women’s stories of violence and survival during the Indonesian killings can contribute to wider research paradigms into gendered experiences of violence during genocide, mass atrocities and other forms of mass conflict.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Allen, B. (1996). Rape warfare: The hidden genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Askin, K. D. (1997). War crimes against women: Prosecution in international war crimes tribunals. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Card, C. (1996). Rape as a weapon of war. Hypatia, 11(4), 5–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Brouwer, A.-M. L. M. (2005). Supranational criminal prosecution of sexual violence: The ICC and the practice of the ICTY and the ICTR. Antwerp: Intersentia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahin, A. R., & Kahin, G. Mc. T. (1995). Subversion as foreign policy: The secret Eisenhower and Dulles debacle in Indonesia. New York: The New Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lentin, R. (Ed.). (1997). Gender and catastrophe. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Narny, Y. (2012). Ketika negeri adat bersendi sarak merasa terancam. In T. Abdullah, S. Abdurrachman, & R. Gunawan (Eds.), Malam bencana 1965 dalam belitan krisis nasional, bagian 2 [The night of the 1965 disaster in the national crisis] (pp. 23–50). Jakarta: Yayasan Pustaka Obor.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowrojee, B. (1996). Shattered lives: Sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide and its aftermath. New York: Human Rights Watch.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perempuan, K. (2007). Kejahatan terhadap kemanusiaan berbasis jender: Mendengarkan suara perempuan korban peristiwa 1965 [Gender-based crimes against humanity: Listening to the voices of women survivors of 1965]. Jakarta: Komnas Perempuan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pohlman, A. (2008). Testimonio and telling women’s narratives of genocide, torture and polical imprisonment in post-Suharto Indonesia. Life Writing, 5(1), 47–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pohlman, A. (2013). Child-raising, childbirth and abortion in extremis: Women’s stories of caring for and losing children during the violence of 1965–1966 in Indonesia. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 32(3), 93–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pohlman, A. (2015). Women, sexual violence and the Indonesian killings of 1965–1966. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pohlman, A. (2016). The spectre of Communist women, sexual violence and citizenship in Indonesia. Sexualities, 20(1–2), 196–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soh, C. S. (2008). The comfort women: Sexual violence and postcolonial memory in Korea and Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiglmayer, A. (Ed.). (1994). Mass rape: The war against women in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sukartiningsih, J. (2004). Ketika perempuan menjadi tapol [When women became political prisoners]. In J. Roosa, A. Ratih, & H. Farid (Eds.), Tahun yang tak pernah berakhir: Memahami pengalaman korban ’65 (pp. 87–112). Jakarta: ELSAM, TRuK & ISSI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Susanti, F. R. (2007). Kembang-kembang genjer. Jakarta: Lembaga Sastra Pembebasan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka, Y. (2002). Japan’s comfort women: Sexual slavery and prostitution during World War II and the U.S. occupation. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • UN Commission on Human Rights. (1998). Contemporary forms of slavery: Systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices during armed conflict: Final report submitted by Gay J. McDougall, Special Rapporteur (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/13), 22 June.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wieringa, S. E. (2002). Sexual politics in Indonesia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Pohlman, A. (2018). Two Women’s Testimonies of Sexual Violence During the 1965–1966 Indonesian Massacres. In: McGregor, K., Melvin, J., Pohlman, A. (eds) The Indonesian Genocide of 1965. Palgrave Studies in the History of Genocide. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71455-4_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71455-4_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71454-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71455-4

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics