International Sign Language Day is celebrated every September 23 to promote the human rights of Deaf individuals, the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of the Deaf community, and the importance of a platform for Deaf individuals to express their ideas. Because the right to sign language is not always honored, various forms of injustice and discrimination are still often experienced by Deaf individuals, especially Deaf women.
On gender discrimination, the SAPDA Foundation, through CATAHU Gender-Based Violence and Disability (GBV), reported 81 GBVs throughout 2022. Deaf women were the most often targeted, with 31 cases reported, followed by people with mental disabilities, of whom as many as 22 cases came to light[a].
Dr. Rachmita Maun Harahap, S.T., M.Sn, Commissioner of the National Commission on Disability (KND RI), explained: “By law, women with disabilities are entitled to more protection from violence, including sexual violence and exploitation. But in fact, they tend to be far more vulnerable – and thus subjected to – violence and discrimination. For this reason, the duties and functions of KND RI are to continue to monitor, evaluate, and advocate for the fulfillment of the rights of persons with disabilities in Indonesia, including the rights of Deaf women, to ensure their right to sexual and reproductive health education is enforced.”
“Of course, this effort requires support from various parties, including communities such as FeminisThemis and business actors such as Unilever Indonesia.”
This is in line with the mission of the FeminisThemis community to create an inclusive and educative feminist community for Deaf individuals to fight against injustice and for gender justice. One of its programs, “FeminisThemis Academy”, provides access to educational forums on sexual violence, gender equality, and the Deaf world. The main goal of this program is to increase self-awareness and gender justice literacy to prevent sexual violence against Deaf women.
Kristy Nelwan, Head of Communication and the Chair of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, the Board of Unilever Indonesia, as a collaborator in this program explained: “International Sign Language Day creates good momentum to strengthen the commitment of all parties in realizing a more just, diverse and inclusive world. We hope this collaboration raises the urgency of the importance for more businesses to place people with disabilities as part of society who deserve fair, equal attention and support.”
Kristy explained that Unilever Indonesia has three Equity, Diversity & Inclusion focuses that are very much in line with the “FeminisThemis Academy” program, namely Gender Justice: providing equal opportunities, fair treatment, and support that suits the unique needs of each woman; Justice for People with Disabilities: creating a disability-friendly society and opening fair opportunities to prove their abilities without hesitation, and Elimination of Discrimination and Stigma: respecting human rights and providing fair opportunities for everyone by fighting various forms of discrimination and stigma.
Nissi Taruli Felicia , Co-Founder and Executive Director of FeminisThemis, said: “The ‘FeminisThemis Academy 2024’ program took place during July-September in a hybrid manner, consisting of Training of Trainers for Deaf facilitators; offline workshops in three cities: Bandung, Yogyakarta, and ending in Malang; and a series of webinars. During this program, we found many interesting insights from the participants about the challenges faced by Deaf women to get gender justice, especially in the cities of Bandung and Yogyakarta.”
Three main challenges were found:
- Sign Language rights are not being fulfilled: Sign language is not taught early enough in families, especially in hearing families. Even in most ”special” schools, Deaf children are still only taught to lip-read and encouraged to learn like hearing people. As a result, many Deaf women do not master sign language, which should be their right as it enables them to communicate and obtain information according to their abilities and needs.
- Limited knowledge and access to information, especially of a personal nature regarding bodily rights, sexual and reproductive health rights: Because the majority of the community does not understand the world of Deafness and sign language, they cannot provide access to communication and information that suits the needs of Deaf women. In addition, sexual and reproductive health rights education materials, even in hearing schools, are still minimal. What is taught is only limited to biological material, for example, about body organs and fertilization. Important topics such as reproductive organ hygiene, body rights, prevention and the impact of sexual activities are still considered taboo.
- Tendency of victim blaming: Due to the lack of knowledge about body rights, many people, even among Deaf individuals, still blame survivors when they report sexual violence.
In line with these findings, the “FeminisThemis Academy 2024” program shares knowledge based on six pillars: (1) Introduction to the reproductive system and body anatomy, (2) Understanding puberty, (3) Sexual and reproductive health rights education, (4) Rights of consent and body boundaries, (5) Risks in the digital world, and (6) Psychological first aid to recover trauma that may be felt.
The “FeminisThemis Academy 2024” programs in Bandung and Yogyakarta as well as the webinars have benefited more than 150 Deaf friends. Uniquely, these programs were also attended by Deaf male participants, reflecting an equal need to understand the material presented. For the participants – even those who are married or adults, knowledge that is often considered simple such as reproductive organs, puberty, consent, and sexual and reproductive health rights turned out to be new topics that should be discussed because they are still very rarely raised.
Malang became the culmination of the “Feminist Themis Academy 2024” offline workshop series, on September 20-22, 2024, attended by 40 participants. This city was chosen because it is a disability-friendly city, as evidenced by having regional regulations, the lack of discriminatory practices, and the availability of various public facility services that are friendly to people with disabilities.
“In the future, the 'FeminisThemis Academy' will embrace more participants at the grassroots level to educate more people about sexual and reproductive health,” concluded Nissi.