Kartini Day in Indonesia Date in the current year:April 21, 2016
Kartini Day, also referred to as Women Emancipation Day, is an Indonesian holiday that commemorates Raden Ajeng Kartini. She was the first Indonesian feminist and is considered a national heroine of Indonesia.
Kartini was born on April 21, 1879, into an aristocratic Javanese family with a strong intellectual tradition. At the time, Java was ruled by the Dutch colonial administration. Her father allowed her to attend school, where she learned to speak Dutch. At the age of 12, however, she had to leave school, but continued to read books to learn as much as she could.
When she had to withdraw from school because she was of noblebirth, she corresponded with Dutch friends telling of her concern both for the plight of Indonesians under colonial ruleand for the restricted lives of Indonesian women. She married in 1903 and began a fight for the right of women to beeducated and against the unwritten but all-pervading Javanese law, Adat .
While reading Dutch newspapers, she became interested in the issues of emancipation of women and other problems of Indonesian society. She view the feminist movement as a part of wider sociopolitical movement.
She died in 1904 at the age of 25, after the birth of her first child. Her letters were published in 1911 under the title,Door duisternis tot licht ("Through Darkness into Light"), and created support for the Kartini Foundation, which openedthe first girls' school in Java in 1916.
Kartini Day was established in 1964 by Sukarno, the first President of Indonesia. It marks her birth anniversary.
Happy Kartini Day!
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