Suharto's fear of the voice of Gerwani (on Saskia Wieringa's research)
De Vrijdag (Het Parool, 6 Oct 1995) article by Hanneke de Wit on Saskia Wieringa's Amsterdam PhD on the Indonesian women's movement. It recounts the 1965 press claims that Gerwani girls castrated and blinded generals and danced naked, which Wieringa calls lies; autopsies showed the generals intact. It details forced 'c
Sexual Metaphors in the Change from Soekarno's Old Order to Soeharto's New Order (Wieringa, RIMA 1998)
Published RIMA version (1998) of Wieringa's 1996 paper, revised after Suharto's fall: the New Order legitimated itself through the army's slander campaign against Gerwani, part of an 'extended coup' of Oct 1965-Mar 1967, with a compact Gerwani history. Companion to the 1996 draft.
Kuntilanak Wangi: women's organisations in Indonesia after 1950 (Wieringa, transl. Hersri Setiawan, 1999)
Hersri Setiawan's Indonesian translation (Kalyanamitra, Dec 1999) of Wieringa's 1988 working paper 'The Perfumed Nightmare' on Indonesian women's organisations after 1950, with a compact history of Gerwani and the Lubang Buaya slander. Accessible Indonesian-language Wieringa.
Saskia Wieringa's 2002 monograph, the foundational history of Gerwani: a semi-autonomous organisation with triple loyalty to feminism, nationalism and socialism, and the New Order's founding on manipulation of sexual symbols through the 1965 slander. Based on interviews with Umi Sardjono, Sulami, Sudjinah, Trimurti and
Saskia Wieringa's Brill encyclopedia entry (2005) on women in Indonesia's revolutionary movements from Kartini to the New Order, noting the 1965 massacres spurred by accusations of sexual perversion against young communist women. Concise reference.
The Women's Movement in Indonesia, with special reference to 'Aisyiyah (It, 2005)
Suraiya It's 2005 Temple University religion PhD dissertation on the Indonesian women's movement, with the Muhammadiyah women's section 'Aisyiyah as case study (Ch. 2 history from Kartini to the New Order; Ch. 3 religion and family law; Ch. 4-5 'Aisyiyah; Ch. 6 conclusion). Gerwani appears only in passing: Gerwis is li
TAPOL Bulletin No. 186, Apr 2007: Sulami's exhumation campaign; review of Kembang-kembang Genjer
TAPOL Bulletin no. 186 (April 2007). A feature (p. 19) notes Sulami's exhumation campaign and that Gerwani, before 1965 'the most active women's organisation', was banned and its members singled out. A review (pp. 21-24) of the book Kembang-kembang Genjer (foreword by Saskia Wieringa) summarises Sumilah, Tami (Njoto's
The WIDF: History, Main Agenda, and Contributions, 1945-1991 (de Haan, c.2012)
Overview essay by Francisca de Haan (Women and Social Movements International database, c. 2012) on WIDF's origins, agenda, UN role and Cold War marginalisation, 1945-1991. Gerwani is listed once as a large, influential WIDF member organisation (with footnotes to Wieringa and to McGregor on Indonesian women and WIDF);
Heirs to World Culture: Being Indonesian 1950-1965 (KITLV Press, 2012)
Edited volume (KITLV Press, Leiden, 2012) by Jennifer Lindsay and Maya H.T. Liem on Indonesian culture and its international links, 1950-65. Gerwani appears only in passing: Michael Bodden's chapter on Lekra theatre says Gerwani, like Lekra and CGMI, was pressed by the PKI in 1964 to declare itself communist (p. 470, c
Heirs to World Culture: Being Indonesian 1950-1965 (KITLV Press, 2012)
Edited volume (KITLV Press, Leiden, 2012) by Jennifer Lindsay and Maya H.T. Liem on Indonesian culture and its international links, 1950-65. Gerwani appears only in passing: Michael Bodden's chapter on Lekra theatre says Gerwani, like Lekra and CGMI, was pressed by the PKI in 1964 to declare itself communist (p. 470, c
Gerwani and women's political struggle (Rio Apinino, IndoPROGRESS, 2013)
Rio Apinino's 2013 IndoPROGRESS review essay of the Indonesian edition of Wieringa's Gerwani study: the film's Lubang Buaya scenes, Gerwis's founding in Semarang on 4 June 1950, PKI influence and the persistent 'whore' stigma. Chapter-by-chapter summary.
Saskia Wieringa essay (22 Aug 2015, IPT 1965 site) on the army's sexual slander of Gerwani, reconstructing how 'Jamilah, Srikandi of Lubang Buaya' appeared in near-identical newspaper confessions in Nov 1965 and how a teenage Jemilah was arrested in place of the Gerwani leader Atikah. Key analysis of slander as fabrica
Tempo.co, 9 October 2015: The fall of the PKI, Suharto and the destruction of the women's movement
Tempo.co report (9 Oct 2015) on a Yogyakarta (UIN Sunan Kalijaga) discussion of Saskia Wieringa's book on the destruction of the women's movement. It summarises her argument that the military slandered Gerwani over Lubang Buaya as a pretext to kill; army press libel, and women forced to dance naked while soldiers photo
Ummah Yet Proletariat: Islam and Marxism in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia, 1915-1959 (Lin, 2020)
PhD dissertation (History, University of Washington, 2020) by Hongxuan Lin tracing the confluence of Islam and Marxism in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia, 1915-1959, through vernacular print culture; it genealogises Sukarno's NASAKOM. Gerwani appears only briefly: citing Blackburn, it says millions joined for
Years of Dressing Dangerously: Modern Women, National Identity and Moral Crisis in Sukarno's Indonesia (Sullivan, 2020)
Charles P. Sullivan's PhD dissertation (History, University of Michigan, 2020) reads Indonesian women's magazines (Wanita, Puspa Wanita, Varia) from 1945-66 to argue that the Lubang Buaya narrative about Gerwani worked as a 'post-text' of long-running anxieties over modernity, moral crisis and the 'Mother of the Nation
Tempo.co, 29 September 2021: Organisations considered affiliated with the PKI
Tempo.co explainer (29 Sept 2021) on organisations 'considered affiliated' with the PKI: Gerwani, Lekra, SOBSI, Pemuda Rakjat. It states, citing Wieringa, that Gerwis became Gerwani at its 1954 second congress, electing PKI member Umi Sardjono as chair. Short, background-level.
Gerwani as a political school of Islam in the Sukarno era (Rahmanudin, 2022)
Deden Rahmanudin, 'Gerwani Mazhab Politik Islam Era Soekarno' (Jurnal Kewarganegaraan 6:2, 2022), a literature-based article presenting Gerwani as a feminist movement and discussing it from an Islamic viewpoint (Sukarno's Sarinah, Hamka). Drawing on Wieringa and Lestariningsih, it recounts Gerwani's 1950 founding, MPs
The Butterfly Effect: Stealth Politics by the Reformist Women's Movement (Puspita, 2023)
PhD dissertation (Northwestern, June 2023) by Sabina Satriyani Puspita in political science on how the 'reformist' women's movement wins policy change through 'stealth politics', using the 2021 Regulation 30 on campus sexual violence. Gerwani appears in historical chapters: the 1965 stigmatisation and the sexual-dance/
Transformation of Gerwani: gender struggle to post-1965 stigmatisation (Aisyah, 2025)
Rania Dhiyaulhaq Aisyah, 'Transformasi Gerwani' (Jurnal Sejarah Indonesia 8:2, 2025), a literature-based article on Gerwani's pre-1965 gender activism (education, health, anti-polygamy, 1955 elections, PKI ties, congresses) and its post-1965 stigmatisation. It repeats Wieringa's finding that the Lubang Buaya sexual-vio
Tempo.co, 22 December 2025: Saskia Wieringa - LGBT discrimination a colonial legacy
Tempo.co interview (22 Dec 2025, Savero Aristia Wienanto and Reza Maulana) with Saskia Wieringa on her book on the Indonesian lesbian, bisexual and trans movement. She traces discrimination to colonialism and says the 1965 sexual slander of Gerwani, accused of cutting generals' genitals while dancing erotically, was In