Soviet Woman, 31 Maret 1962: 'Our Deeds and Dreams' (Ny. Adam Malik tentang perempuan Indonesia)

=== [PDF page 1] === March being a special month when women all over the world share their experience in life, particularly in the struggle for their rights, our readers will no doubt be interested in learning about the work and aspirations of their Indonesian sisters. Be low we print an article by Madame N. Adam Malik, the wife of the Indonesian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Soviet Union. December 22 is Mothers’ Day in Indonesia. This is an annual event, instituted at the Congress of Indonesian Mothers, held in Surabaja on December 22, 1928. The congress was attended by women from various or ganizations with diverse political, economic and social views. Among the many Soviet women invited to the Mothers' Day reception at the Indonesian Embassy in Moscow was the composer Ludmila Lyadova. The pho tograph shows her accompanying Madame Malik, who is singing an Indonesian folk song Actually, the women’s movement in Indonesia is much more than thirtythree years old. Indonesian women were fighting for justice, equal rights with men and complete emancipation long before December 22, 1928, but the congress united all their organizations. Women did not want to be onlookers in the movement for national liberation in progress at that time. They fought for freedom shoulder to shoulder with the men. We also observe Kartini Day every year. Kartini was the first Indo nesian woman to come out for women’s equality. There was a time in the history of Indonesia when the position of women was very high, even higher than that of men. There were women rajahs and women warrior-heroines. But feudalism, and then foreign domi nation altered that. Women came to be regarded as a cheap commodity. We hope that as the friendship between our two countries grows, so will the friendly ties between Soviet and Indonesian women become stronger. The women of the Soviet Union have had excellent and valuable experience which we should like to acquire. Long live the solidarity of women all over the world! GAGARINA Now, of course, this is a thing of the past but women have not yet attained full equality. For the Constitution to proclaim equality is not enough. It must be carried out in practice. So that we women of Indonesia are working for complete equality in practice and the elimination of the survivals of feudalism and imperialism. I am delighted to have celebrated Mothers’ Day in Moscow this year. The women of Indonesia have long admired Soviet women. They know how bravely the Soviet women fought, in the October Revolution, how devotedly they worked to build the first socialist state in the world, how much their heroism contributed to the defeat of fascism in World War II. We rejoice that the women of the Soviet Union already enjoy all the rights of socialist justice, that they enjoy full equality in every sphere of life as a result of the triumph of the October Revolution. We know about the reports delivered at the Twenty-Second Congress of the Communist Party of' the Soviet Union. We are impressed by the Party’s Programme for the coming ten-twenty years. We remember Nadezhda Krupskaya who was always by Lenin’s side. Of course, we still have a long struggle ahead of us to achieve the po sition of Soviet women. As you know, Indonesia is mustering all her forces for the liberation of West Irian, which is still a colony of the Netherlands imperialists, and we women not only fight for equal rights with men, bear and bring up children, work and build a socialist society in Indonesia but are also pre pared to fight for the liberation of the people of West Irian, This little Indonesian girl, whose father is active in the Plan tation Workers’ Trade Union, has been named “ Gagarina” in honour of Soviet Cosmonaut No. 1 27