| Subject: Women's Day 2005 - East Timor
Women's Day 2005 - East Timor
In the southeast corner of East Timor lies a mountainous, well-forested
region known as Iliomar. Each year in Iliomar, the East Timor Women’s
Organisation (Organisaçao da Mulheres Timorense) commemorates the death
of one of its heroines on International Women’s Day, the 8th of March.
Olympia was a member of a three-woman courier and support cell along
with Hilda Madeira and Balbina da Conceiçao. The three women delivered
information and supplies to the armed resistance in the jungle. In early
1980, according to the military historian Brigadier (retd) Ernest
Chamberlain, the 21-year old Olympia was arrested and brutalised by the
Indonesian military:
Olympia was tortured and raped. Afterwards, she was stripped to the
waist and, wearing only a very short nylon shift, was paraded on foot
through the six villages... Two of her senior male relatives held her
hands ... and at each village she was forced to warn villagers of the
penalties for resistance and supporting [the resistance]. Later that
evening, she escaped from [the barracks], but was recaptured at her parent’s
home [where] she had tried to gather clothing before fleeing into the
jungle. … She was bayoneted in the throat and died[1].
Olympia da Costa’s martyrdom makes harrowing reading, but it must be
read by those wishing to understand the role played by women during the
East Timorese liberation struggle. As the scholar-activist Emma Franks
notes, rape had ‘become formalised into the occupation strategy as a
specific tool used by the Indonesian state to attack women’[2]. They
were targeted not because they were passive victims but precisely because
they were active resisters. In the early years of the occupation, their
traditional knowledge of medicines and midwifery proved invaluable to the
guerrilla fighters and the internally displaced population in the
mountains.
Maria de Fatima Pinto, a key figure in the resistance to the
occupation, reminds us that the ‘participation of women was integral at
every stage’. Through the structure of the Popular Organisation of
Timorese Women (OPMT), women ‘bore arms alongside men, provided
logistical support, carried out a broad range of clandestine political and
armed resistance activities, as well as taking primary responsibility for
the well-being for family and community development often in the absence
of men’[3].
When required, women took up arms; as Franks records, many ‘guerrilla
detachments in the interior of East Timor [were] commanded by women’[4].
Olympia’s comrade Balbina da Conceiçao was one such female fighter.
Balbina spent the occupation as an armed fighter in the mountains, and
nowadays is one of the directors of KOVEFOKTIL (Cooperative of Veteran
Women, Widows and Orphans Timor Leste). This group is attempting to deal
with the new challenges presented by East Timor’s independence, such as
the need to empower women economically in a culture that remains deeply
patriarchal.
KOVEFOKTIL conducts income-generating activities by utilising the
skills that have clothed and protected communities for centuries. By
encouraging the weaving of traditional cloth for contemporary use,
KOVEFOKTIL is also encouraging women to break the cycle of illiteracy and
poverty. KOVEFOKTIL focuses on empowering women, particularly those who
were widowed during the 24 year occupation. In doing so, KOVEFOLTIL will
reduce the gender imbalance by improving women’s status. This approach
ensures that the benefits flow directly to their families and strengthens
their communities’ socio-economic base.
KOVEFOKTIL works closely with an Australian voluntary organisation -
East Timor Women Australia (ETWA) - in a joint project to train East
Timorese women to make handcrafts and find markets for their products
overseas. The practical nature of this project derives its impetus from
the recognition that women are not homogenous but are affected by many
factors, notably class, education, age and so on. Catherine Scott, of the
Catholic Institute of Institute Relations, points out that ‘in East
Timor, the majority of women are illiterate, uneducated subsistence
farmers. The majority live in rural areas, in an overwhelmingly
patriarchal society shaped by centuries of indigenous cultures and
religious beliefs, and influenced also by the overlaying gendered impact
of Portuguese colonialism and (mostly) Catholic Christianity. They have
been marginalised from politics, and collective community agency has been
hampered not only by cultural norms, but also by colonial and neo-colonial
obstacles, felt most acutely over the last 25 years during the suffocating
and brutal Indonesian occupation’[5]. Given these facts, KOVEFOKTIL and
ETWA focus on direct economic empowerment of women, while of course,
supporting the elimination of domestic violence and the importance of
having more women parliamentarians.
The example set by women’s courage during the occupation and the
collaborative approach of KOVEFOKTIL is encouraging for younger
generations of women vying for status in a free East Timor. Three
generations from more than seven districts in East Timor work to ensure
KOVEFOKTIL is sustainable in the long term, nullifying the myths of
generational and geographic disputes. This remarkable cooperation has
resulted time and again in the equitable distribution of profits from ETWA’s
fundraisers to KOVEFOKTIL members. Thus, begins a process of mutual
solidarity, confidence and cross-cultural understanding between ETWA and
KOVEFOKTIL.
KOVEFOKTIL also aims to maintain East Timorese cultural practices
through the production of Tais (traditional cloth). When designing a
program to support rural women in Iliomar, Balbina highlighted the
parallel benefits of economic and cultural development. By encouraging
women to produce Tais using traditional spinning, dying and weaving
techniques, East Timorese cultural practices are maintained, and the sale
of the Tais will improve the life chances of women and their families.
ETWA were fortunate to have representatives at the inauguration meetings
in April 2004, and assist KOVEFOKTIL with finances to purchase the first
batch of traditional Tais later that year.
This year, the women of Iliomar will commemorate Olympia da Costa’s
death on International Women’s Day. The remembrance will transport many
of them back to the horrific pain of the occupation. For others, like
Balbina, Olympia’s determination will further spur their commitment to a
new struggle in the contested space of economic and social emancipation of
women. All strength to them.
Debbie Salvagno is a volunteer with ETWA http://www.timorwomen.org
[1]E. Chamberlain, The struggle in Iliomar: Resistance in rural East
Timor, 2003, ISBN 0 9750350 0 2.
[2] M. de Fatima Pinto, Mobilising women for the sustainable rebuilding
of East Timor Sustaining our Communities conference, Adelaide, 3-6 March
2002.
[3] E. Franks, Women and Resistance in East Timor, Women’s Studies
International Forum, Vol 19, Nos 1/2 pp 155-168, 1996.
[4] Franks, p 162.
[5] C. Scott, Are women included or excluded in Post-Conflict
Reconstruction?: A Case study from East Timor, CIIR, 30 June 2003.
Check out http://www.timorwomen.org/
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