Lahir dari Rahim: Wacana Perempuan Asia tentang Allah di Era Globalisasi (Mei 2009?)

Kata Pengantar 1
Oleh Jennie S. Bev
(Jennie S. Bev, yang terlahir sebagai Jennie Siat, adalah penulis, kolumnis dan pengajar kelahiran Indonesia yang bermukim di California Utara. Ia dikenal sebagai akademisi independen multidisipliner yang berpendidikan hukum (Universitas Indonesia), ilmu pendidikan (California State University Hayward-East Bay), dan bisnis (Northcentral University))

Keindahan buku ini terletak di premis yang sangat humanis: penulis memaparkan duka cita Allah dalam air mata perempuan Asia dan mengajak kita semua untuk menjadi semakin peka akan fenomena ini. Setidak-tidaknya, penulis membuka tabir bilur-bilur jender yang dipandang “lemah” dan “kelas dua” ini dengan penuh rasa empati, lemah lembut, dan solidaritas. Penulis hendak menekankan pandangannya bahwa segala macam bentuk praktek patriarki secara sadar maupun tidak, serta legitimasi institusi agama seringkali dipandang sebagai momok bagi kaum perempuan, namun ternyata tidak sesederhana dan terbatas oleh dua hal tersebut. Kita semua baik perempuan maupun laki-laki dengan maupun tanpa disadari telah menjadi subyek dan obyek paradigma ini. We all are doers.
Penulis sebagai seorang laki-laki pro-feminis adalah suatu fakta yang sangat menarik dan unik. Secara historis, hanya segelintir laki-laki pro-feminis yang dikenal di dunia akademik Eurosentrik dan bahkan lebih jarang lagi terdengar di Asia apalagi di Indonesia. Penulis mengakui bahwa ia cukup terinspirasi oleh para seniornya yang bernada feminis positif, yaitu Choan Seng-Song, Felix Wilfred, Michael Amaladoss, dan Tissa Balasuriya. Dengan diterbitkannya buku ini, penulis menjadi kolega setara tokoh-tokoh tersebut yang telah membangkitkan sedemikian banyak wacana dalam perdebatan-perdebatan akademik. Penulis telah mampu membawa bendera merah-putih Indonesia dalam arena perdebatan teologi pro-feminis dengan gayanya yang elegan dan berani.
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Istilah “rahim” dipilih penulis karena ini menunjukkan kesucian keperawanan hati dan bukan semata-mata keperawanan fisik yang biasanya digambarkan dengan “vagina.” Saya sangat tersentuh dengan kepiawaian penulis dalam menguntaikan kosakata yang tidak mengandung bias patriarki, namun sebaliknya membangun awareness akan solidaritas yang bisa dengan mudah dimulai dengan penggunaan bahasa yang menetralkan aura pelecehan rahim perempuan. Dari perspektif material, karya ini menawarkan hermeneutics baru pengkategorian, pendefinisian, dan pengargumentasian perempuan, keperempuanan, homoseksual, transgender, dan fenomena-fenomena di dalam masyarakat lainnya yang sangat erat dengan mereka.
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Di Indonesia, tripel minoritas (berdasarkan etnisitas, afiliasi agama, dan jender) seringkali dijadikan tumbal politik dan sejarah mengingkarinya dengan semburan ludah kejijikan. Ini bisa ditemui dengan gagalnya sistem hukum dalam mengangkat crime against humanity Tragedi Mei 1998, di mana 92 perempuan beretnis Tionghoa digagahi dan dipermalukan secara seksual. Saya adalah salah satu dari mereka karena saya telah digagahi dan dipermalukan secara spiritual dan politis. Dan saya tidak akan tinggal diam sampai arwah saudari-saudari saya dapat beristirahat dengan tenang di sisi Allah...


Kata Pengantar 2
Oleh Ulil Abshar-Abdalla
( Mantan koordinator Jaringan Islam Liberal dan mahasiswa doktoral di departmen Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, Universitas Harvard)

Sejarah agama bukan semata-mata sejarah protes dari pinggiran. Sejarah agama juga berkelindan dengan penindasan itu sendiri. Bergerak dari pinggiran, mencapai dan menguasai “pusat”, agama kerapkali berbalik menjadi penindas, seolah mengkhianati dakwahnya sendiri, melupakan pesan apostolik pertama yang ia kumandangkan. Agama yang semula merupakan corong bagi mereka yang lemah, mendadak menjadi “alat pukul” bagi mereka yang kuat. Ini terjadi pada Yahudi, Kristen dan Islam, juga agama-agama yang lain. Penganut ketiga agama itu –dan juga agama-agama lain—tak usah malu melihat sosok sejarah mereka yang tak seluruhnya mengkilat...
Teologi dan politik sudah menyatu sejak awal dalam sejarah setiap agama. Di sinilah sebetulnya penindasan dalam agama itu dimulai. Sebab, dalam setiap sistem selalu ada kecenderungan ke arah pembentukan suatu susunan atau hirarki. Jika tidak membentuk sebuah susunan atau hirarki, jelas itu bukanlah sistem tetapi serakan-yang-tak-berbentuk. Setiap tertib dan keteraturan sudah pasti mengandaikan adanya susunan dan hirarki, termasuk sistem yang “pura-pura” menganjurkan etika egaliter dan semangat anarkis. Dan dalam sistem itulah kemungkinan untuk penindasan dan peminggiran menjadi mungkin terjadi. Kita bisa mengatakan ada “pinggir” dan “pusat”, serta menyuarakan pengalaman keterpinggiran justru karena berada dalam sebuah sistem.
Akan tetapi selama susunan atau sistem masih bisa dikontrol oleh anggota yang ada di dalamnya, dan selama komitmen atas keadilan masih cukup kuat di sana, maka sistem itu akan dianggap fair dan adil. Tetapi kemungkinan sistem untuk tergelincir menjadi sistem yang menindas sangat besar sekali. Sistem yang didasarkan pada klaim ilahiah justru paling besar kemungkinannya untuk tergelincir menjadi mesin kekerasan yang bengis sekali. Sekali lagi, sejarah agama-agama besar dunia menyediakan contoh yang berlimpah-limpah untuk hal ini...

Tanggapan atas Buku

Saya teringat para perempuan yang berjuang di akar rumput di Indonesia, yang tidak pernah diakui, tetapi perjuangan mereka luar biasa. Hampir di semua wilayah Indonesia, saya menemukan mereka, dari berjuang untuk lingkungan hidup melawan PT.Newmont di Minahasa, membela kemanusiaan dan membangun perdamaian di Poso dan Ambon, dan melawan kekerasan militer yang luar biasa di Papua, Aceh dan Sumatera Utara.
Sudah waktunya kita untuk membangun konsep-konsep baru feminisme dari perjuangan para perempuan di Indonesia, dan suara-suara para perempuan korban, yang telah mampu mentransformasikan dirinya dari korban
menjadi inspirator dan pejuang. Terimakasih kepada Mutiara Andalas, yang telah memulai dan memberikan inspirasi.

Ita F.Nadia, pekerja kemanusiaan

Membaca tulisan Romo, yang mencoba mengangkat sejarah perjuangan kaum perempuan, teologi pelangi dan pemikir pro-feminis ke dalam arus utama teologi dan refleksi iman nan manusiawi, saya jadi teringat puisi dariRicoeur dalam History, Memory, and Forgetting (2004)

Under history, memory and forgetting.
under memory and forgetting, life.
but writing life is another story.
Incompletion.

Ricoeur menggarisbawahi pentingnya "memori" dan "lupa (pelupaan?)sebagai bagian dari historiografi kehidupan, seni bertutur tentangkehidupan dalam keseluruhannya, betapapun tidak lengkap, betapapun masihterbuka untuk direvisi dan diteruskan oleh para penutur kehidupan berikutnya.

Hendar Putranto, Alumnus STF Driyarkara dan Pengajar di Universitas Multimedia Nusantara


Frasa Fides Quarens Intellectum, Fides Quarens Liberationem dengan mudah bisa ditemukan di blog Mutiara Andalas, S.J. (theologianatcalvary.blogspot.com). Terjemahan harfiahnya “integrasi antara kecerdasan iman dan praksis liberatif", namun yang seperti apa? Pertanyaan ini, dalam kaitannya dengan konteks studi post-modern feminisme Asia, akan terjawab secara lugas, jika anda membaca buku ini.
Kemampuan akademisi penulis yang tinggi telah menempatkan karya ini di posisi yang penting di antara buku-buku keilmuan sejenisnya, walaupun demikian bukan berarti buku ini sulit dimengerti dan membosankan. Buku ini mudah dimengerti karena struktur dan penulisannya di setiap bab mulai dengan memaparkan pengalaman ringan sehari-hari penulis dan kemudian direfleksikan dengan topik bahasan. Buku ini penuh dengan nuansa puitis-romantis.

Beni Bevly, OverseasThinkTankForIndonesia.com.

Marianne Katoppo: A Poet of God amidst the World of the Others

CHAPTER 3
MARRIANE KATOPPO:
A Poet of God amidst the World of the Others


Does mysticism still have a place in our daily life?
Henrietta M. Katoppo in Raumanen (1975)


At the previous chapter, we drew a new portrait of theologian as the poet of God. This chapter introduces Marianne Katoppo, an Indonesian literary writer and theologian, as a living portrait of a theologian as the poet of God. Katoppo envisions theology as poetry of God. She gives breath to my understanding of narrative theology that is still in embryonic form. Her theological reflection starts from the margin, even outside the societal stage, where the Others live and defend their sacred lives from the danger of premature deaths. She speaks on behalf on rural perempuan, raped laborers, prostitutes, handicapped children, and other oppressed perempuan and fight with them against the historical Anti-God. She chooses to use literary language to speak about the Others who pose existential and theological problems. She contrasts herself with bourgeois theologians who write beautifully worded abstract concepts. She reads the Scripture to re-imagine Indonesian women as liberated human beings, and the feminine face of God.
Raumanen, a controversial, yet multi-awarded novel by Henrietta Marianne Katoppo, is re-launched this year to commemorate its 30th year publication. Indonesian literati recognize her as an influential, though often forgotten literary figure who leads the Indonesian literature into a new direction. This chapter recognizes her important contribution in leading Indonesian theology into a new direction. Her book Compassionate and Free: Toward an Asian Women’s Theology (1979), becomes an opus magnum for doing women’s theology in and beyond Asia. I explore her narrative way of doing theology that has never before been analyzed. I see her as a poet of God who formulates her theology using narrative language.
To help the reader journey with Katoppo’s narrative way of doing theology, I compose this chapter as follows. I begin with Katoppo’s life background, and show how her life experiences as an Indonesian Christian woman shape her literary writings. I focus my attention on some of her literary writings, such as Raumanen (1975), Terbangnya Punai (1978), and Anggrek Tak Pernah Berdusta (1979), which illustrate to me how she wrestles to live in a world that alienates the Other. I also discuss how her experience as the Other shapes her journey as an Indonesian woman theologian. How do Indonesian women as the Others encounter God? Finally, I will underline her theological insights that deserve recognition and further exploration.

Let the Other Speaks
Henrietta Marianne Katoppo was born in June 1943 in Tomohon, North Sulawesi. She grew up in a family that supported gender equality and in a culture that is more westernized. She engaged herself in a literary world and in human issues since her childhood. Her father, Elvianus Katoppo, introduced her to the importance of independent thinking and historical perspective. He proposed a deschooling model for Indonesian education in 1949 when he was a minister of education. The Indonesian government denied his proposal because most people were still in favor of schooling model of education. He emphasized the power of education in uncovering the myth of history and shaping history. Education should encourage the learning subjects to develop historical perspective and independent thought.
Elvianus Katoppo wrote about Nuku Sultan of Tidore as a Nusantara hero who fought for freedom from the colonial Dutch. There were Dutch writings about him at the end of XVIII century and at the beginning of XIX century, yet Nuku did not appear in Indonesian historical books. Nuku was an Indonesian hero, yet his name sank in the realm of forgetfulness. Elvianus Katoppo took Nuku out from the realm of forgetfulness and brought him back into the realm of Indonesian consciousness. He portrayed Nuku in a holistic image from the Indonesian perspective and challenged the myth created by the colonial Dutch about him. He wanted Nuku to form a page in Indonesian history. His project is to widen the geography of Indonesian national history that includes all islands of Nusantara, which spreads from Sabang, which is the western part of Indonesia, to Merauke, which is the eastern part of Indonesia.
Marianne Katoppo encountered new worlds when she moved to the island of Java. The people there began to ask questions like, “Where do you come from?” Katoppo, in her novel Anggrek Tak Pernah Berdusta, shares her struggle to answer this question. She knows that they actually ask her, “What culture do you come from?” She inherits her ethnicities from the Eastern to Western part of Nusantara.

My ancestors journeyed crossing the ethnic boundaries. Once upon a time one of my ancestors sailed from the western coastal of Africa to East Indies – Indonesia – for tobacco. He was a French man named Rene. People in Mollucas called him Pati Rene and soon his name changed into Pattirani. He indigenized himself, married a local perempuan, and lived there until his death.
His grandson continued his journey. A half century ago he sailed from Moluccas and his ship embarked unexpectedly in Amurang, Minahasa. He joined the military forces under the Dutch regime. His superior sent him to Sumatera and he resides in the land of Karo. His son, my grandfather, moved from Karo to Nias.

Cultural encounters with their clash are portrayed vividly in her novel Raumanen. Katoppo portrays Raumanen Rumokoi as a beautiful, diligent, dynamic, and independent woman. The relationship between Raumanen, a North Sulawesi woman, and Hamonangan Pohan, a North Sumatra man, was separated by walls of tradition and culture. Raumanen asks herself whether love can set them free from those barriers. Almost after 20 years of revolution when the Nusantara people lived as Indonesians, it turns out that we do not yet free ourselves easily from prejudice against people from other cultures. “Where do you come from” and “Who is your parent” still becomes first of the questions during acquaintance.
The question of love arises when Monang proposes marriage to her. Raumanen asks whether love motivates him to marry her. She will accept his proposal to marry him, but only if he is not proposing because he feels responsible for her after having slept with her. Responsibility is a necessary condition yet not a sufficient one for proposing marriage. Unlike sex, marriage requires love because it is a whole life commitment. Sharing personhood between husband and wife will possible be only if there is love between them.

I do not know whether I should have been happy because Monang already opens a freeway toward our marriage. I am not happy, but rather guilty with what happened at the villa. Moreover, I am afraid of the future. Should I become the wife of Monang now? Sharing my life with him, making his ideas mine? I do not know yet whether he loves me.”

In her novel Kembalinya Punai Marianne Katoppo rephrases the same question on love. Pingkan realizes that Martin does not yet have the will to marry or is even interested in marrying her. She chooses not to marry Andrzej because there is no mutual love between them. She asks whether it is possible to build a happy marriage without love as its foundation. For Pingkan, happiness is only possible when love becomes the foundation of the man and woman relationship. Pingkan is not skeptical, but critical about the love that both Martin and Andrzej ever professed to her.

And she realizes that Martin, like Miguel, does not yet have will or interest to bind him in marriage with a woman he loves.
Can she become Andzej’s wife although she has no love for him? But… the happiness that they enjoyed together previous night… could it happen without love?

Her experience as the Other continues when she enters theological study and career because of her ‘perempuan’ (‘feminist’) position. She still experiences being the Other even as a student of theology and a theologian. Her personal encounter with God as a woman is often denounced as heretical and hysterical. Her engagement with women in Asia and her encounters with many Third World theologians in Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) help her to shape her distinctive theology based on her experience as the Other.
In Raumanen Marianne Katoppo poses the question of whether man and woman can resist patriarchal culture and religion that alienate human beings in the same way. She continues searching for the source that will give women power to transform the patriarchal culture and religion. These cultures and religions discriminate, subordinate, oppress, and alienate women. Being the other becomes a starting point for her doing Asian women’s theology. Katoppo begins to empower women by recovering the true meaning of the word perempuan. She reclaims the original meaning of the word perempuan and uses the word wanita no more. The word wanita, which means fragrance, has a negative connotation on women as objects. Katoppo in Terbangnya Punai (1978) declares clearly that calling someone by her right name means respecting the humanity of that person.

Pingkan almost does not recognize Cecile. They meet with each other for a short time only. But Cecile always tries to pronounce her name right because she is a careful journalist, and has a soft heart. She understands that calling name involves the nature of that person.

Katoppo understands freedom in a concrete way. In her novel Terbangnya Punai Katoppo shows that Amanda chooses deliberately to live under the same roof with her alcoholic husband. As a wife she has power to divorce him, but chooses not to do so. Amanda never uses freedom in her own interest, but to liberate others. She continues to live with her husband without losing her personhood in order to save the humanity of her beloved kids and husband.

“There are many forms of love and happiness,” Pinkan thinks…. It is perhaps difficult for an outsider to understand why Amanda perseveres in her marriage. What happiness is left for her living with his drunkard husband? It seems that Amanda experiences sereneness when she is at the side of her husband. Her children become precious gifts for her.

Katoppo understands freedom in its internal relationship with compassion. Pingkan invites us to listen to her deepest longing for freedom. She joins with the slaves in the Nebucadnezzar who sings the hymn “…teure Heimat, wann she’ich Dich wlder, Dir, nach der die Sechnsucht mich verzehrt!” She understands her freedom in relationship to the liberation of other people. She does not reduce freedom to individualism that sacrifices interpersonal or social relationship between human beings. Individualism is the antithesis of freedom. Sweden, which is generally perceived as a modern and liberal country and whose citizens enjoy a high standard of living, is a mirror through which we can see the irony of individualism. Individualism as an ideology fails because it encourages freedom, but discourages intimacy between human beings. Excessive search for individualism degrades humanity at its deepest level.

It’s Sweden… Human relationship and family ties are sacrificed in order to maintain their freedom and independence. Every human being has a chance to develop his or her personality, but that is perhaps why he or she becomes short-sighted. They seek for their egoism and many sides of their personality are left out.’ … ‘Is this what we call development? Rigid and cold skyscrapers while human hearts that long for intimacy and love are left on the roadside.”


Pingkan once desired to become a traditional woman living in harmony with traditional culture and religion. She would bear less responsibility if she chose to be a dependent person in society. She only needs to live according to the rule and law in the society. She would become a part of a structure of the old society and live according to the way of life that is prescribed in many details. Although it restricts their freedom, many women are tempted to be dependent persons because society tells them how to live. Opting for independence and being independent was a real challenge for women because they need to be critical of the old ways of living that discriminates, subordinates, and oppresses humanity.

Pingkan suddenly dreams that all her burdens to be a responsible person to her own life will be lifted up. Ah, how beautiful it is living in a restrictive society. People live following the tradition and law passing through generations without reserve. They do not become an independent person, but only a part in the societal structure. They need only to behave and act according to the assigned pattern. It is bondage, but also a pillar. One becomes only a part in the societal structure.
Liberation and independence are beautiful things, but they are costly. We need to have a strong personality. We can not hide behind customs imposed by other people.

Katoppo also extends the issue of cultural diversity between man and woman from different countries. Swasti Patirrani, the main character in Anggrek Tak Pernah Berdusta (1979), is an Indonesian woman with multiple cultural backgrounds who experienced cultural conflict in her relationship with a Dutch man named Jerome. Cultural diversity does not unite Patirrani and Jerome, but divides them instead.

Red-White is my national flag. When I add with a blue color – the color of his yes - it becomes his. We must break our relationship because we come from different countries.

Swasti Patirrani aims to promote gender equality in his relationship with Jerome. Patirrani believes that gender equality will build mutual partnership between them. In her Marianne Katoppo portrays Patiranni as a woman who has a considerable knowledge of national and even global issues. Patirrani challenges the patriarchal society that portrays perempuan as domestic wanita. She imagines a portrait of perempuan in a post-patriarchal society as a responsible person who exercises her freedom to serve her social world. Jerome fails through his narrow view of freedom that is limited to individual right and restriction. He neglects to understand that a true freedom should move us to love human beings unconditionally. He sees the impossibility to balance private and public lives. Swarna, her younger brother, is a modern man who promotes gender equality. Man is not destined to rule over woman. Swarna rejects the traditional portraits of women as second class persons whose main tasks are macak (treat beauty), masak (prepare meals), and manak (give birth).

Barbara Hatley, who specializes in gender representation in Indonesian literature, also fails to understand Katoppo’s portrait of a fully liberated woman. Hatley misreads Katoppo’s novel Dunia Tak Bermusim (1984) as a novel which contrasts the Indonesian cultural values of restraint and refinement with the Western cultural values of bold behavior. She fails to see a new relationship between man and woman built on love. Hartley describes the protagonist as an Indonesian woman who studies in Korea and builds a sexual relationship with a married Korean businessman. She fails to see that a true love assumes partnership. She portrays the main character as an Indonesian woman who disapproves the promiscuous behavior of an American fellow student.
Swasti is a modern woman who stands at the crossroads between the Great Society and the regional chauvinist society. Blood, kinship, and soil ties characterize regional chauvinist society. She dreams of a new relationship between human beings beyond regional chauvinist culture. Since childhood she has dreamed of writing about her presence in a larger universe.

I write down my name: Swasti Pattirani. Behind my name, I add my address, house number, city, Jakarta, Java, Indonesia, World, and Universe.
Children always want to draw their existence in this universe. They are conscious of their smallness, while adult people are less aware about this. Adult people think that they are big enough, and they narrow their feet in this universe.
Pingkan envisions a new liberated humanity that replaces the eros of ueber alles with the ethos of homo homini socius. Love transforms the other from a threatening into an enriching element. Pingkan describes her father as a model of a liberated person. Her father involves himself in the liberation of the others. He dares to take a risk, challenging all cultures and traditions that discriminate, subordinate, and oppress others.

He is a real father. He is a fully human being who engages himself and takes responsibility toward other human beings for whom he is as their father. A kid actually never asks to be born in this world. Moreover, a kid like Ulrike, whom in another country other people will call illegal, and the members of the community will expel him because they are so sure that they are better that than him.

Marianne Katoppo, in her novel Raumanen, upsets her readers with a sad ending. Raumanen realizes that her first child will be born with disability if she continues her pregnancy. Hamonangan Pohan contaminated her womb with his unclean sexual life. Raumanen Rumokoi rejects to forgive her unfaithful husband. Raumanen admits that she is too weak to manage her existential crisis. Katoppo draw Raumanen’s ultimate existential crisis with the biblical imagery of Jacob who wrestles with the angel of God for all night. Raumanen ends her life by committing suicide. Marianne Katoppo seems to use suicide as a symbol of religious kenosis before God. Yohanes Bilyarta Mangunwijaya considers her suicide as an anti-religious arrogance instead.
God as the Absolute Other
The three novels that I discussed above address the issue of being the Other. Women as the Others long for liberation and envision a new humanity characterized by love. This part focuses on how Katoppo’s experience as being the Other shapes her theological activity. Katoppo defines theology traditionally as “a discipline or a critical reflection primarily about God.” There is always a temptation for her to identify herself as a scientist of God. However, in reading her novels and her theological work Compassionate and Free: Toward An Asian Women’s Theology (1979) she never tries to call herself a scientist of God. She implicitly calls herself a poet of God, who is on a continuous journey to encounter the Absolute.
Choan-Seng Song calls a theologian, in a sense, a biographer of God who ”lets God speaking for God’s own self on the basis of what Christian perceive to be signs of God’s activity in human community.” Katoppo understands the task of a theologian in a similar way; as Song puts it ‘‘a witness to love between God and humanity in action.” The starting point of theology is humanity in God and the end point of theology is God in humanity.

In theology we begin with where we are and what we are – that is, where God and human beings meet in actual situation. We neither begin with God alone or with humanity alone. We begin with God in humanity and humanity in God. In other words, the center of our theological concern is God and human being interacting with each other in love.
Marianne Katoppo’s experiences as being the Other shape her theological question “How do Indonesian women as the Others encounter God” Her theology is born out of a crisis of love, as represented in the characters of Raumanen, Pingkan and Swasti. She formulates her theology to respond to this crisis. She invites theology to return to its original definition as a critical discipline when she poses the question “Does mysticism still have a place in our daily life?” She formulates her theology from her background as an Asian Christian woman with her fellow women who undergo alienation for being the Other, while simultaneously experiencing the Other as a liberating event.
Katoppo is very conscious of the importance of history. History first of all refers to living people, not fossilized data. She pays special attention to those who live at the underside (of the underside) of history who experience alienation. They become the starting point for doing theology. She never puts women as the Other as a footnote, but as primary data. When she uses historical data, she speaks about human beings, not objects. The opposite of history, for Katoppo, is unreality.
Katoppo recovers the original meaning of word perempuan (person) and deflates the myth of woman created by the patriarchal society with the word wanita. The word wanita implies that woman is a non person. To be a perempuan means being a person with equal right to exist. On the contrary to be a wanita that implies non-personhood because, her existence derives from the male. Discrimination, subordination, and oppression against women are forms of treating women as non-persons in history.

From the early age a woman has been conditioned to perform as a subservient, subordinate role. Her status will always be derived, never primary. Instead of being a person in her own right, she will always be “daughter/wife/mother” of a man.

Katoppo sees the danger when theologians prefer becoming scientists of God to poets of God. The task of a scientist of God is to formulate beautiful concepts of God that are unhistorical. On the contrary a poet of God is critical to anti-God in history. De-schooling theology becomes her major project as a response to schooling theology that castrates independent thinking and historical perspective. Her theology advocates for the humanity of non-persons who are close to premature deaths.

In doing Asian theology, we cannot limit ourselves to beautifully abstract concepts. Of course well-fed, well-dressed bourgeois theologians have all the time in the world of that. But if one really encounter the powerless Christ in the oppressive structures of Asia (and indeed everywhere), it is clear that time is running out.


Katoppo formulates a theology done with a sense of urgency. She emphasizes the urgency to shift from bourgeois into non-persons theology. Her theology starts with the non-persons and ends with God. It is urgent to liberate the non-persons in Indonesian history now. The non-persons have less time to live and are in continuous danger of premature deaths. Subagio Sastrowardoyo (1924 – 1995) in his poem, The Producer’s Time, speaks about the importance of time:

Time is an important part of the play
Time controls the rhythm of the actions, the meetings and
the conversations
time determines when an actor enters, when he leaves, and how long he is absent from the stage
Time divides the story into equal parts: tells when to open the curtain and when to close them at the end….

Katoppo uses the non-persons’ history to read the story of God in the Bible and other Christian sources. Women are also considered as the Other in Christian sources. Katoppo observes how Christian theologians often underemphasize and even ignore feminine images of God and at the same time overemphasize male images of God. They overemphasize the male images of God, such as Lord, King, and Father. On the contrary they underemphasize or even alienate the feminine images of God, such as Mother, Comforter, and Giver of Life. Katoppo uses Mary as symbol of a fully liberated woman, and the symbol of Mary to restore the true image of woman. She is not being subjected to other human beings. She is free to give her life to God. She leads an autonomous life, not a derived life. Mary of the Magnificat is sensitive to social injustices that take place in her times and is ready to restore human beings as imago Dei. Mary has a social conscience to liberate her fellow human beings who were alienated.
Katoppo’s starting point as a perempuan who brings the story of her fellow women gives her a third eye in reading the Bible and in searching a whole image of God. She discovers feminine images of God and even feminine qualities in male images of God. God as mother is a symbol of life giver, while God as Father is a symbol of divine fecundity and creativity. It is a symbol to express the loving commitment of God who takes care of us.

My life journey begins at her womb. When her life journey reaches a final point and she returns to the womb of the earth, why I can’t come to her funeral? Why? How comforting is the memory of mother’s special love.

A Model for Indonesian Narrative Theology
After analyzing Katoppo’s first theological publication of Compassionate and Free: An Asian Women’s Theology (1979), I see at least three theological contributions that deserve recognition and further exploration. Katoppo starts her theological reflection from the point of view of an Indonesian Christian perempuan. Her encounter with the others helps her to re-imagine perempuan as a liberated human person and God as the absolute Other who brings liberation to the suffering other. She proposes theology as poetry of God and theologian as poet of God.
Firstly, Katoppo starts her theological reflection from what Choan-Seng Song calls as “indigenous resources.” Katoppo begins her theology from her own experience as an Indonesian Christian perempuan. She also discusses some important human life issues that her communities of women face, such as prostitution, polygamy, and rape. Katoppo asks her reader to reflect on other life and death issues that need urgent response now such as racial discrimination, violence, corruption, and ecocide. These issues need urgent responses because of the risk to human lives who are on the underside (of the underside) of history. Indonesian theology needs to be approached with the urgency of Indonesian reality. If we do not respond to those issues soon, there are many lives that will be in danger of premature deaths. We need to formulate theology that does not alienate, but liberates the Other. As Choan-Seng Song rightly states, we need “to reclaim the life and history of our people as our own life and history.” Both Katoppo and Song use indigenous resources that are totally unrelated to Christianity for Christian theology.
Theological interpretation should not limit itself to understanding God and the transcendent sphere only, but extend to addressing the whole reality. Nothing escapes the consideration of the theological activity. It is open to all reality because all reality is its subject matter. It enters implicitly into dialogue with all human experience, with other disciplines of human knowledge and with other religions. The very dialogue with the world forces theology to reflect critically on the meaning of Christian symbols.
Secondly, Katoppo finds that indigenous resources raise theological motifs. In addition to listening to women’s stories, she also listens to the cultural and religious wisdoms, such as Putri Ijo (Princess Green), Beru Ginting Pase (Daughter of Ginting Pase), and Pingkan Mogogunoi that exist in Indonesia. Such indigenous wisdoms are “capable of echoing, together with biblical insights, the mystery of God’s creation from the depth of the human spirit in the quest of the source and meaning of life.” Although unrelated historically to Christianity, indigenous resources pose theological issues that we can no longer ignore.
Indigenous resources challenge Christian theology from being “worded abstract concepts.” They also challenge sexist language and practice of the Christian community. The other religions in Asia lead their followers to personal and social liberation. Dialogical interaction with indigenous resources calls Christian theologians to imagine a new humanity as a compassionate and free person. It also calls Christian theologians to re-emphasize and remember the feminine image of God, such as Mother, Comforter, and Giver of Life. God in Jesus encounters women as a liberated person, not as a non-person.
Thirdly, theology needs to be more narrative in language. Katoppo uses symbols and images to share her encounter with God as the absolute Other. Song also reminds us that we human beings are makers of symbols and images that tell us who we are, who God is, and how we human beings and God encounter each other. Theology tends to reduce God to merely an object of knowledge. Literalization of theological language takes place when theology grasps and possesses God as an object. For Roger Haight, theology is a symbolic discipline because symbolic language is the only kind of language that is appropriate to its subject matter.
Katoppo envisions a theologian as a poet of God who is on a journey to encounter the absolute Other. The poet of God also is responsible to encounter God in the suffering other. Finally, Katoppo as a poet of God shares her vision of a new humanity.
I am – You are
I am free – You are free
But – where I am, what I am, You cannot be
Where you are, what you are, I cannot be
Am I encroaching on your freedom?
Are you intruding on mine?
Have I the right to be what I am?
Can we be fully human: You and I, each in our own way?

Perempuan dan Antikekerasan

KAMI sudah hancur, kehabisan tenaga akibat tahun-tahun kematian. Sejak Perang Teluk, 600.000 anak mati kekurangan gizi dan obat-obatan. Kami hidup dengan kematian karena sanksi ekonomi Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa atas tekanan Amerika Serikat.SEKITAR 4.500 anak di bawah lima tahun setiap bulan mati kelaparan, kekurangan gizi dan kekurangan obat-obatan di Irak. Kami tidak lagi bertanya apakah akan mati karena serangan bom udara atau sebab-sebab lain pada hari-hari mendatang. Pertanyaan kami sekarang: Apakah terdapat kehidupan setelah kematian? Apakah Tuhan mendengarkan kami? Embargo tampaknya telah menutup segala sesuatu, termasuk Tuhan."Penuturan perempuan Irak itu kembali bergema di tengah invasi pasukan koalisi di teritori Irak. Narasinya mewakili jeritan para perempuan lain yang masih berada di zona konflik, yang mengungsi ke daerah-daerah dan negara-negara yang relatif aman, dan yang menjadi korban kekerasan perang. Di daerah konflik atau kamp penampungan, mereka ikut memanggul kemanusiaan kita yang luka parah di pundak mereka.Peralatan perang modern memang dapat mencegah jatuhnya banyak korban, namun tidak dapat mencegah agar tidak jatuh korban. Kapasitas senjata perang dalam mencari target korban mereka dapat menyembunyikan brutalitas perang. Bagaimana perempuan memberikan kontribusi bagi terciptanya peradaban antikekerasan dalam dunia kita?Pelucutan tubuh sosialWilliam T Cavanaugh dalam Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ (2000) menyatakan, kekerasan terhadap tubuh dimaksudkan untuk menyerang tubuh sosial. Drama kekerasan dengan strategi penyiksaan selama rezim Pinochet di Cile digunakan untuk mengurai dan menyerakkan semua tubuh sosial yang berdiri antara individu dan negara.Tubuh korban merupakan tempat ritual di mana kekuasaan negara dimanifestasikan dalam bentuk paling mengagumkan. Penyiksaan meruntuhkan dunia para korban pada batas-batas tubuhnya. Relasi-relasi pada masa lalu dan harapan-harapan pada masa depan korban disingkirkan karena korban memfokuskan diri pada ketakutan dan luka mereka.Dalam The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (1985), Elaine Scarry menyatakan, kesakitan korban tidak hanya menahan mereka untuk berbicara melainkan juga menghancurkan bahasa yang mereka gunakan sebelumnya. Tubuh korban (yang dibiarkan hidup) dipinjam untuk menyebarkan aura ketakutan di antara orang-orang lain karena mereka telah ditandai oleh dan dapat diklaim sebagai milik mereka yang menyiksanya.Penghilangan paksa dan penyiksaan seperti permainan bayang-bayang di balik layar di mana kekuasaan dilucuti. Pada satu sisi rezim yang berkuasa berusaha menyembunyikan keterlibatannya dalam tindakan penyiksaan, dan pada saat yang sama menyatakan kehadirannya melalui tindakan penyiksaan.Dalam invasi pasukan koalisi atas Irak, tubuh lawan yang menyerahkan diri, disandera, dilukai, dan bahkan berhasil dibunuh, dipinjam pihak-pihak yang berkonflik untuk dipentaskan di atas panggung publik. Ketidakberdayaan para korban perang dipublikasikan pihak lawan untuk menunjukkan kuasa mereka atas tubuh korban. Masing-masing pihak menyebarkan aura ketakutan melalui penguasaan tubuh lawan.Populasi sipil tidak hanya berada dalam zona-zona pertempuran bersenjata. Bahkan, mereka menjadi target serangan karena dianggap berafiliasi dengan militer Irak. Militer Irak pun tak segan membangun pertahanan terakhir mereka dengan perisai hidup populasi sipil.Dapatkah perdamaian sosial diraih dengan kekerasan sistematik? Mungkinkah kita berhasil membatasi perang dengan kapasitas destruktif alat-alat perang modern? Lisa Cowe Cahill mengajukan problem etik di hadapan humanitarian intervention sebagaimana diilustrasikan dalam Perang Teluk.Menurut dia, pertanyaan tentang intervensi kemanusiaan (humanitarian intervention) adalah tahap paling akhir bagi pertaruhan karier teori perang adil. Intervensi militer yang dilanjutkan dengan sanksi ekonomi itu menghancurkan infrastruktur sosial sehingga diperlukan waktu lama untuk rehabilitasi.Penggunaan alat-alat perang yang memiliki kapabilitas mencari sasaran musuh dalam invasi pasukan koalisi ke Irak tidak sedikit pun mengurangi ontologi kekerasan yang melatarbelakanginya. Ontologi kekerasan mendiktekan logika oposisi dan resolusi konflik dengan tindakan destruktif terhadap lawan mereka.Alat-alat perang canggih merupakan metafor keterpesonaan kita pada kekerasan sebagai solusi final atas konflik. Ironisnya, tidak ada ruang aman bagi kita, bahkan tempat paling terisolir mana pun ketika suatu masyarakat meniscayakan kekerasan.Peradaban antikekerasanPerempuan menjadi obyek kekerasan perang sekaligus subjek yang melawan kekerasan perang. Mereka menunjukkan pola konsisten dalam menolak perang. Perang per definisi merupakan kejahatan dan kekalahan atas kemanusiaan kita.Birgit Brock-Utne dalam Educating for Peace (1985) mengidentifikasi tiga karakteristik partisipasi perempuan dalam memajukan peradaban antikekerasan. Pertama, partisipasi perempuan terkait dengan keprihatinan dan perhatian terhadap kehidupan manusia, terutama anak dan perempuan. Mereka mengorganisasi diri karena kasus-kasus khusus seperti penghilangan paksa, kerusakan ekologis, perkosaan massal, invasi militer, dan sebagainya.Kedua, mereka menggunakan strategi tanpa kekerasan. Para ibu Plaza de Mayo memilih menggunakan simbol dan foto untuk memprotes anak-anak mereka yang dihilangkan daripada berkonfrontasi langsung memprotes kediktatoran pemerintahan. Gerakan Green Belt di Kenya memilih menanam pohon sebagai protes atas kerusakan ekologi.Terhadap represi militer, mereka menyematkan bunga perdamaian. Para perempuan di berbagai lapisan dunia memprotes rencana dan tindakan invasi militer dengan mendramatisasikan secara kreatif ancaman terhadap perdamaian global.Ketiga, aktivitas mereka transpolitik, bahkan transnasional dan terarah untuk merengkuh para perempuan di tempat lain. Untuk memperjuangkan keadilan dan perdamaian, mereka membentuk jejaring yang terbentuk dari berbagi kisah.Intervensi kemanusiaan di pihak pasukan koalisi maupun pertahanan nasional di pihak Irak sama-sama mengidap ontologi kekerasan. Di mana perempuan mengorganisasi diri dalam atau berpartisipasi dalam solidaritas antikekerasan, kekerasan didegradasikan.Kontribusi perempuan dalam peradaban antikekerasan terletak dalam pembelaan mereka terhadap keberlangsungan kehidupan dan perjuangan mereka mencintai tubuh sosial manusia meskipun telah dihancurkan. Mereka menyentuh, membalut, dan mengobati luka tubuh sosial manusia, bahkan memanggulnya agar tidak dijarah kejahatan perang. Visi kemanusiaan masa depan bukan peradaban kekerasan, melainkan peradaban antikekerasan. Visi kemanusiaan masa depan tidak ditandai kekerasan perang, melainkan perdamaian global.Skenario masa depan kemanusiaan tidak didasarkan pada logika oposisi yang meniscayakan konflik dengan lawan mereka, melainkan logika perdamaian yang mengundang pihak-pihak yang berkonflik untuk berdialog dan bekerja sama.

Humanisasi Perempuan, Transformasi Sejarah

Humanisasi Perempuan, Transformasi Sejarah

"Aku bukanlah pemilik kehidupanku sendiri. Hidupku kupersembahkan bagi perjuangan rakyatku. Para tentara dapat membunuhku setiap saat. Namun, saat itu haruslah ketika aku sedang bertugas. Di sanalah darahku akan tertumpah secara tidak sia-sia melainkan menjadi kesaksian bagi rakyatku."
Me Llamo Rigoberta Menchz, y asmme nacmo la conciencia (1992) adalah kesaksian Rigoberta Menchu sebagai pejuang perempuan dan kemanusiaan yang muncul dari tengah-tengah realitas korban. Pilihan hidupnya membela petani Indian Maya di Guatemala menegaskan, tidak ada tempat di mana perempuan absen dalam perlawanan membela hidup dan kemanusiaan. Ia tidak tinggal diam di hadapan penindasan dan ketidakadilan pemerintah militer terhadap petani miskin. Ia memahami revolusi dalam makna riilnya, yaitu transformasi sejarah kemanusiaan. Sejarah yang diubah dengan cara kekerasan akan menghilangkan kemanusiaan kita
Ironisnya, sebagaimana diungkapkan Enrique Dussel, mereka diabsenkan dari sejarah. Ketika mereka diburu dan dibunuh, tak seorang pun memperhatikan. Oleh karena itu, pembebasan perspektif perempuan penting ditekankan karena perempuan seringkali diabaikan, bahkan ketika keberpihakan orang miskin itu fundamental. Pembebasan perspektif perempuan muncul sebagai kritik atas kegagalan melihat perempuan sebagai kelompok kolektif yang mengalami berbagai bentuk ketidaksetaraan dalam masyarakat dan teologi.
Dehumanisasi perempuan
Perempuan mencari nama yang akan membantu mereka memahami penindasan dan mengidentifikasi perjuangan mereka tanpa memisahkan diri dari komunitas. Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz dalam Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century (1996) menyatakan, kemampuan menamai diri merupakan salah satu tindakan manusia paling kuat. Nama tidak sekadar kata yang mengidentifikasikan seseorang, tetapi nama memberi bingkai konseptual, titik referensi berpikir, memahami, dan berelasi dengan manusia, ide, dan gerakan. Kita mengidap kekurangan fundamental, yaitu absennya refleksi pengalaman historis dan spiritual perempuan dan usaha perempuan mentransformasikan struktur yang menghancurkan hidup dan integritas kemanusiaan. Kaum miskin, komunitas korban, dan perempuan adalah elemen bahasa yang banyak dilupakan intelektual dan teolog. Memasukkan perempuan ke dalam (re)produksi pengetahuan adalah perspektif perempuan menafsirkan sejarah dan iman mereka.
Bagaimanakah wajah perempuan di Asia? Mereka mengalami penindasan sebagai warga negara berkembang dalam sistem ekonomi dunia yang tidak adil, sebagai pekerja dan sebagai perempuan. Perempuan diperlakukan inferior dalam masyarakat. Hak berpartisipasi dalam pengambilan keputusan dan membangun kemanusiaan mereka secara penuh ditolak. Status rendah perempuan berasal dari hubungan mereka dengan anggota laki-laki keluarga mereka.
Sebagaimana kasus kekerasan di banyak negara, kekerasan terhadap perempuan di Indonesia sebagian besar disembunyikan. Kevin O Browne dalam Landscape of Desire and Violence: Storied Selves and Mental Affliction in Central Java, Indonesia (1999) membahas isu tentang penyakit mental. Dengan mengutamakan narasi para pasien, dia berusaha menyingkap cara yang rapuh di mana tubuh menjadikan dirinya didengar dalam bahasa. Browme berusaha menemukan berbagai kebisuan, tekstur, dan praktik sehari-hari yang berfungsi mentransformasi hierarki sosial menjadi puitika personal, yakni kisah terapeutik. Puitika, seperti politik, mengajukan komentar terhadap perjuangan diri dan komunitas dalam kehidupan sosial. Kekerasan emosional, fisik, dan seksual terhadap anak-anak dan perempuan di Indonesia memunculkan masalah kesehatan mental, masalah medis, dan masalah sosial. Ketidakberdayaan relatif dan kurangnya suara yang mendukung perempuan sering membuat perempuan dalam keterbatasan pilihan atau bahkan dalam kebisuan sama sekali.
Penemuan sebab penindasan orang miskin secara umum dan penindasan perempuan secara khusus, mengubah pemahaman perempuan mengenai dirinya. Hidup perempuan tidak dipahami secara fatalistik bahwa nasib tidak dapat diubah. Mereka juga bukan obyek sejarah. Kesadaran ini mendorong perempuan mengubah pemahaman mereka atas realitas dan memperkenalkan makna baru dan berbeda untuk (arah) kemanusiaan. Pemahaman akan realitas itu dimulai dengan kesadaran diri perempuan dan realitas diri mereka sebagai perempuan.
Gerakan perempuan semakin menyadari perlunya memperluas horizon perjuangan. Selama ini, perjuangan dalam sektor populer cenderung dikebawahkan mereka yang memprioritaskan perubahan langsung dalam struktur sosio-ekonomi-politik. Perjuangan hidup perempuan yang sehari-hari itu hanya dipandang sedikit atau bahkan tidak memiliki efek pada perubahan sosio-ekonomi-politik. Faktanya, kehidupan sehari-hari justru berada pada pusat sejarah. Kehidupan harian dapat memproduksi dan mereproduksi relasi yang menindas dan tidak setara. Atau kehidupan harian dapat menjadi sumber relasi yang membebaskan dan egaliter. Problem pembagian kerja secara seksual, pemisahan antara ruang publik dan privat, dan penciptaan sistem seks-jender yang menegaskan superioritas laki-laki, semuanya terkait dengan kehidupan sehari-hari.
Para ibu Plaza de Mayo di Argentina yang memprotes hilangnya anak-anak mereka, bertindak pertama-tama dan terutama sebagai ibu, bukan aktivis politik. Bahkan ketika bertindak tanpa kesadaran politik, mereka berperan dalam mentransformasikan masyarakat. Praksis mereka menjadi gerakan lain dari para perempuan yang, tanpa berusaha mengubah ideologi patriarkal atau meninggalkan feminitas, mentransformasikan kesadaran perempuan yang tradisional dan peran politiknya. Praksis mereka merupakan redefinisi praktis atas dualisme ruang privat dan ruang publik. Kita melihat ini juga pada para ibu yang menyumbangkan logistik dan medis menjelang dan pascareformasi 1998. Horizon perjuangan perempuan tidak dapat diisolasi pada ruang publik semata. Relasi interpersonal dalam ruang domestik dan privat merupakan lokasi perjuangan pembebasan.
Transformasi sejarah
Salah satu pemahaman paling penting dan sulit dalam transformasi sejarah perspektif perempuan adalah distingsi antara kesetaraan dan pembebasan. Kesetaraan terkait dengan partisipasi perempuan dalam struktur yang ada. Pembebasan terkait dengan perubahan radikal struktur masyarakat yang menindas. Struktur masyarakat sekarang, semuanya terkait dan dikontrol atau sekurang-kurangnya dipengaruhi patriarki. Kesetaraan tidak mungkin terjadi jika struktur masyarakat yang menindas perempuan tidak disentuh sama sekali.
Dalam kerangka pembebasan, transformasi sejarah perspektif perempuan bergerak dari antropologi berpusat pada laki-laki ke yang berpusat pada manusia; dari yang dualistik ke kesatuan; dari yang idealis ke realis, serta dari yang satu dimensi ke yang multi-dimensi. Antropologi yang berpusat pada manusia menangkap revelasi Tuhan dalam dan melalui seluruh umat manusia. Pandangan ini merelativisasi pola budaya yang berpusat pada laki-laki. Sejarah Tuhan dibangun dengan peluh, darah, air mata generasi manusia yang satu sesudah yang lain. Kebenaran mengenai manusia tidak kita temukan dalam dunia di luar sejarah. Sekali realitas manusia itu ditolak atau disembunyikan, realitas itu hampir tidak akan ditransformasikan. Antropologi realis terkait dengan kehidupan, dan hidup secara mendasar terpaut pada Tuhan. Pandangan manusia multidimensi tidak memandang manusia pertama-tama sebagai sebuah definisi. Manusia dipahami sebagai sejarah dalam ruang dan waktu. Menurut visi ini, realitas manusia, yaitu laki-laki dan perempuan, komplementer.
Perspektif perempuan mengenai manusia membuka mata sejarah bahwa perempuan sebagai korban penindasan semakin menjadi elemen realitas. Perempuan miskin adalah orang miskin yang paling miskin. Mereka adalah subyek sekaligus obyek keberpihakan kita pada mereka yang miskin. Para korban tentu bukan satu-satunya realitas dunia kita. Kecuali kita memberi tempat sentral kepada korban, kita akan gagal menangkap elemen fundamental realitas sejarah kita.
Mengutip Isasi-Diaz, satu-satunya jalan mentransformasikan pembebasan perempuan adalah menghidupi realitas yang dicita-citakan. Cita-cita itu pembebasan, bukan partisipasi dalam situasi dan masyarakat yang menindas perempuan. Masa depan akan merekah hanya jika kita mengizinkan masa depan itu berakar dalam dan di antara perempuan. Inilah proyek sejarah kita. Perempuan harus terus-menerus menanamkan benih kemanusiaan baru dalam kebun sejarah meskipun berkali-kali benih kemanusiaan yang tumbuh itu dicabuti. Meskipun perjuangan seringkali menyakitkan, kita percaya pembebasan perempuan adalah perjuangan terbaik dan itu menjadi alasan perjuangan menjadi hidup kita.