Thousands of Indonesian women still languish in Suharto's prisons
Tribune (Sydney), 20 May 1975, p. 7, abridged from the British magazine TAPOL (Mar 1975): thousands of women remain among about 100,000 political prisoners. Describes Gerwani's work, its banning, the sexual slander ('sex-maniacs', mutilation claims) as fuelling the massacres, torture and rape of women tapols, Plantunga
Thousands of Indonesian women still languish in Suharto's prisons
Tribune (Sydney), 20 May 1975, p. 7, abridged from the British magazine TAPOL (Mar 1975): thousands of women remain among about 100,000 political prisoners. Describes Gerwani's work, its banning, the sexual slander ('sex-maniacs', mutilation claims) as fuelling the massacres, torture and rape of women tapols, Plantunga
Wieringa's 2000 article on communism and women's same-sex practices, prompted by Kowani chair Ine Sukarno's 1999 claim that Gerwani supported lesbianism; argues Gerwani's morality was puritan and heterosexual and that 'militant motherhood' threatened conservatives. Links Gerwani slander to sexuality politics.
Women in the Current of the Times (Sulami, 1995/2001)
Sulami's essay 'Perempuan dalam Arus Zaman' (written Dec 1995, published Aug 2001) surveying women's condition before globalisation using Kompas reports on rapes, Julia Suryakusuma's 1981 article and a seminar paper on women workers. Does not mention Gerwani.
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
TAPOL Bulletin No. 169/170, Jan/Feb 2003: obituary of Sulami (Gerwani deputy secretary-general)
TAPOL Bulletin no. 169/170 (Jan/Feb 2003), with Carmel Budiardjo's obituary of Sulami (pp. 13-15). Born Sragen 15 Aug 1926, she joined Gerwis (Gerwani from 1951), became East Java executive member (1954) and second deputy secretary-general (1957), attended WIDF meetings, and was deputy secretary-general in 1965. Arrest
Challenges of Political Rehabilitation in Post-New Order Indonesia: Gerwani (McGregor and Hearman, 2007)
McGregor and Hearman (2007) read Gerwani leaders Sulami's and Sudjinah's memoirs as political rehabilitation: distancing from the PKI, rebutting the Lubang Buaya slander, socialist critique and claims to citizenship. Key scholarly analysis of survivor memoirs.
Challenges of Political Rehabilitation: the case of Gerwani (McGregor and Hearman, 2007)
McGregor and Hearman's 2007 article reading Sulami's and Sudjinah's memoirs as political rehabilitation: both arrested 1967, tried 1975 for subversion; they distance Gerwani from the PKI and answer the sexual slander. Second copy of the paper (South East Asia Research).
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