Marriage Stir In Indonesia (Sydney Morning Herald, 21 September 1954)

Date retrieved: 2026-10-17 OCR text (uncorrected) follows. 21 Sep 1954 - Marriage Stir In Indonesia Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 21 September 1954, page 1 Marriage Stir In Indonesia DJAKARTA, Sept. 20 (AAP-Reuter).-A deputation from 30 Indonesian women's organisations to-day protested to President Soekarno against his recent marriage to a second wife without prior consent of his first. The Indonesian President, who has been married for some time to Mrs. Fatmawati Soekarno, recently took as second wife Mrs. Suwondo, a beautiful divorced mother of five children. The deputation which went to the Presidential Palace this morning was headed by Mrs. [Unreadable]kowijono, chairman of the Perwari Women's Association which started the commotion about Dr. Soekarno's second marriage. The four-woman deputation spent an hour with Dr. Soekarno, but was not prepared to make a statement on their protest. Many Indonesian newspapers to-day devoted leading articles to the news of President Soekarno marrying a second wife. "As a Moslem, Dr. Soekarno is certainly entitled to marry a second, third, and even a fourth wife," said the Semarang daily, "Daulat Rakjat." "As our President and leader of the people he has to be able to command himself." A prominent women leader told "Indonesia Raya" that Dr. Soekarno's private life cannot reflect on [Unreadable] the President. Indonesian women for decades have put up a fight for women's rights regarding matrimony. Dr. Soekarno's second marriage has dealt Indonesian women's movements a bad blow, the women leader said. Many newspapers blame the President's advisers for his second marriage, and urge him to replace them by men of character.