Masnu'ah

Masnu’ah is working to change the marginalization of women through her fisherwoman cooperative, Puspita Bahari. Masnu’ah’s organization gathers the community to learn about gender equality and income-generating activities; through these workshops, men and women are better able to understand the equal role of women as citizens in society.

Masnu’ah works to challenge the patriarchal culture of the fishing community in a positive, inclusive way through her cooperative Puspita Bahari. By involving both women and men in her approach and focusing on income-generating activities, she has been able to find a socially acceptable method to solve the issue of gender inequality. Typically, women in the fishing community are isolated and face issues of domestic abuse and economic inequalities. According to the World Economic Forum, as of 2011, Indonesia ranked 101 out of 135 countries when rated on economic participation and opportunity in terms of gender equality.

Masnu’ah understands that men and women need to work together to solve the most pressing issues facing women in Indonesia. By engaging men on a variety of levels within Puspita Bahari, she gains community acceptance and begins to change men’s attitudes toward women. By placing emphasis on economic activities through her fish processing workshops, husbands and male community leaders see the value Puspita Bahari offers the fishing society and encourage their wives and female family members to attend.

By using her economic approach, Masnu’ah is changing this culture. Within Puspita Bahari, Masnu’ah teaches women about gender equality and their legal rights in the face of domestic violence. As civil society has not worked extensively in this field, Masnu’ah has legitimated womens’ legal status as fisherfolk. With her success at the regional level, Masnu’ah continues to advocate for national policy change on the legal term for "fishermen" through the Ministry of Marine and Coastal Development.

In the fishing community women are marginalized, despite the fact that their role encompasses 48 percent of the overall fishing process. Seen as less important than the fishermen, women are isolated from access to public goods such as education, freedom of expression or unifying and empowering organizations. Domestic violence is a prominent issue among Indonesian women, particularly within the fisherfolk communities. With no available resources, women are silent about the violence they endure, which is considered normative by the community.

Climate change has also made earning a living in fishing communities more difficult. Due to the rise in sea level, variable seasons and extreme weather events, there has been a decrease in fish caught and limited access to sailing. This condition forces a woman to incur debt to save her family since the family has lost a significant amount of income. The average income for fisherman is 500,000 rupiahs (US$41) monthly, while their debt averages about 1 to 2 million rupiahs (US$82 to $164).

Although Indonesia is a maritime country with 2.8 million fisherfolk who live along the 80.000km archipelago coastline, there are few initiatives to improve the lives of fisherwomen or expand their rights. Many women’s rights movements in Indonesia focus on urban and farming communities rather than fisherfolk. The fishing community had received little attention regarding development, until 1999, when the government established the Ministry of Marine Exploration and Fisheries. Since 2000 it is the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Coastal Development. Though a subsidy program was created to assist with fuel, education and health costs in 2003, only men who sailed to fish were reliable, leaving women out of the conversation. Masnu’ah’s cooperative, focusing on women, is perhaps the only one of its kind in Indonesia.

While a number of government agencies such as the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, assist women in gaining full access to their rights, issues such as domestic violence tend to be unreported. Under national law, “Women have the same rights, obligations and opportunities as men”; however it also states that “Women’s participation in the development process must not conflict with their role in improving family welfare and educating the younger generation. Marriage law designates men as the head of the family.” These societal pressures mean that women often find their voices going unheard both in domestic and professional spheres.

Masnu’ah’s main organizing principle behind her cooperative is to end the isolation of fisherwomen in their communities. Understanding societal values, she first created a role for men through open conversation in Morodemak village. Through informal meetings, Masnu’ah also gathered learned of the issues facing fisherwomen. Armed with this information, she came up with solutions based around income-generating activities. Using workshops, Masnu’ah understands that community men will not allow their women to organize and engage in the cooperative. Thus, in 2005 she established Puspita Bahari, a cooperative which teaches women to generate additional family income through fish processing to advance their role in both the fishing community and their domestic life. The workshops offer a space for women outside the domestic sphere to learn about gender and economic development.

Masnu’ah also engages men, because educating husbands is key to preventing domestic violence. As an opening into their world, she allowed men to manage a donated Puspita Bahari fishing boat in exchange for letting their wives join the workshops. Those men who manage boats must also agree to learn more about gender equality.

Though the cooperative has an economic focus, Masnu’ah has created a space for women to address domestic violence issues. She was chosen as a paralegal for the Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice and Legal Aid Institute in 2010 to help victims of abuse, assisting them to seek justice in a court of law. Puspita Bahari is not only a cooperative, but also a place for women to consult with professionals regarding their domestic issues. Masnu’ah has three members of Puspita Bahari learning to assist victims of domestic abuse. In addition, all members of Puspita Bahari act as agents to share information on gender equality with two other villages near Morodemak. Masnu’ah is also fighting for Morodemak children to receive scholarships from the local government. With a higher education, she believes the next generation of women will have better lives and not be as isolated from the world.

Masnu’ah encourages women to acquire their identity cards to address the literal invisibility and inability to be recognized by the government. A large part of breaking the isolation of fisherwomen is to make them recognized by law like Fishermen. Since the term has excluded women from receiving the national program benefits of fishermen, Masnu’ah is helping those women seek their full rights under the law. She has gained access to the government’s fisherman card for women at the regional level. Now, networking with the national citizen organizations (COs) Fisherman Life, and the People’s Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA), Masnu’ah has negotiated a policy change with the Ministry of Marine and Coastal Development to include women, so they too will have equal access as citizens.

Masnu’ah’s model has drawn the attention of the Fisher Woman Sisterhood Union (FWSU) and she was elected as an ambassador for Java Island. This national organization covers three regions of Indonesia based on the larger Islands—Sumatera, Java and Sulawesi. Through FWSU, Masnu’ah is able to promote her idea nationally.

Masnu’ah is second of three siblings from a fishing family in Rembang. She was raised by her aunt who became the center of her life. Masnu’ah’s aunt was forced to get married before her first menstruation but was divorced by her husband directly after she reached puberty without explanation. Her aunt never remarried. Masnu’ah’s aunt’s story was her first experience of encountering injustice against women. She understood then that women had no bargaining position and no say in their lives. Men in the house always seemed to make decisions regarding women.

Masnu’ah’s life mission is to end injustice toward women. When her initial work with Puspita Bahari did not succeed, she continued to learn more from other organizations. Although she never received funding for the ventures, she obtained assistance and advice from experts to help her to improve the products. She continues to share what she learns about gender inequality with the members of Puspita Bahari.

Because of Masnu’ah’s tenacity to break women’s isolation while improving fishing family income in Morodemak, she received media attention. With the publicity, Masnu’ah is working with other fisherwomen groups to disseminate her ideas. She is building a CO network concerned with fisherwomen’s rights, and together with the FWSU, she has expanded her ideas nationally.