Working together with the women empowerment body and communication forum for religious community in East Lampung, the Multiplication program of Stube HEMAT in Lampung held a discussion (15/09/2020) with the theme "Are the Piil Pasenggiri values become the life values of women in Lampung and how is the implementation?" This activity was carried out at Sukadana village hall in East Lampung. It was conveyed that in the cooperation with communication forum for religious community (FKUB) in East Lampung, the women empowerment body had carried out several activities involving women in the development of East Lampung, but the women involvement has not been maximum as expected before. Some of the obstacles are the low awareness of women involvement, the limited opportunities for women doing actualization, and the skepticism toward women abilities to handle major activities.
The next discussion (26/09/2020) was attended by 21 participants and 1 speaker, a native Lampung woman activist, Mrs. Dra. Mardian Imelda. Stube HEMAT played role as the facilitator of the discussion held at Pondok Diakonia GKSBS Batanghari, East Lampung. The speaker started her presentation by discussing the icon of Lampung province, namely ‘Siger’ which symbolizes feminim character. Generally, the regional symbols in this country mostly masculine, such as West Java with ‘Kujang’, a Sundanese traditional weapon, Kalimantan with the ‘Mandau’ and Aceh with its ‘Rencong’. Those symbols express patriotic spirit and defense weapon. ‘Siger’ shows not only symbols of glory and wealth because of its crown-like shape, but it also promotes feminism value. For Lampung people, women play crucial role in all activities, especially in household. Besides the tenderness of women, a spirit of hard work, independence, persistence, and so on is existing. Although Lampung people holds paternal or patrilineal system, the women figures are important for Lampung society, as the inspirator and encouragement for her spouse.
In
her narration, Dra. Mardian Imelda conveyed
the customary kinship law of Lampung, the position of a child, including
the position of a child with his/her parents. A woman who is already married
and follows her husband's family, she is called Pirul. Then, the position of a
child with his/her in-laws is known as Ngemian child. Then, the position of a
child with his/her siblings, among others, is called Puwarei (fellow brother),
Nakbai (sister of male), Mehani (brother of female), and Kelepah (fellow
sister). In this kinship relationship, the status of women will be highly
respected and protected with the philosophy of ‘Piil Pasenggiri’, where a woman
needs to be treated well, furthermore, a woman will be respectable in her
family if she can maintain the name of her family by doing, speaking and
behaving well. Women are perceived to have a very positive role and appreciated
when they become a good household manager.
Based on the speaker whose husband is a representative member in Metro municipal, the involvement of women in politic in Lampung is still low because they are less than 30% from the total number of representatives of Lampung province. Among 85 member, only 12 are occupied by women. Actually, from Lampung cultural system, women have the same opportunity to take part in public space, in any field including politics. Refering to the attitude of Lampung men who are flexible towards women's choices, actually the Lampung men plot themselves as partners for women in domestic area, so that they can help women to have roles in public space.
From
this discussion, it is expected that many parties will involve and have concern
to empower women across generations, and it will be strengthened by instilling
the values of ‘Piil Pasenggiri’. Women need to be encouraged to take available chances
that will enable them to contribute in development and self-empowerment.***
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