Kartini Day: Indonesia’s proto-feminist heroine

On 21st April, Indonesia celebrates the remembrance of R. A. Kartini, who promoted women’s emancipation in the Dutch East Indies (as they were then called).

Raden Ajeng Kartini was cloistered in an aristocratic family, but managed to befriend some progressive Dutch and Indonesian individuals who stimulated her thinking. She was determined to improve the lot of Indies women, even though her father made her the fourth wife of an older man. She poured her heart and hopes into letters to liberal-minded friends but died following childbirth at 25.

A collection of her letters was published posthumously, in English called “Through Darkness to Light” and later “Letters of a Javanese Princess”. These spread her ideas and are still republished today. For more, see: http://www.shadow-chase.com/women-of-the-indies.html