Hardback : $253.00
The Indonesian massacres of 1965-1966 claimed the lives of an estimated half a million men, women and children. Histories of this period of mass violence in Indonesia’s past have focused almost exclusively on top-level political and military actors, their roles in the violence, and their movements and mobilization of perpetrators. Based on extensive interviews with women survivors of the massacres and detention camps, this book provides the first in-depth analysis of sexualised forms of violence perpetrated against women and girl victims during this period. It looks at the stories of individual women caught up in the massacres and mass arrests, focusing on their testimonies and their experiences of violence and survival. The book aims not only to redress the lack of scholarly attention but also to provide significant new analysis on the gendered and gendering effects of sexual violence against women and girls in situations of genocidal violence.
The Indonesian massacres of 1965-1966 claimed the lives of an estimated half a million men, women and children. Histories of this period of mass violence in Indonesia’s past have focused almost exclusively on top-level political and military actors, their roles in the violence, and their movements and mobilization of perpetrators. Based on extensive interviews with women survivors of the massacres and detention camps, this book provides the first in-depth analysis of sexualised forms of violence perpetrated against women and girl victims during this period. It looks at the stories of individual women caught up in the massacres and mass arrests, focusing on their testimonies and their experiences of violence and survival. The book aims not only to redress the lack of scholarly attention but also to provide significant new analysis on the gendered and gendering effects of sexual violence against women and girls in situations of genocidal violence.
1. Women and Violence following the 1965 Coup 2. Getting Caught and Being Killed 3. The Violence of Detention 4. Explaining Sexual Violence 5. Sexual Assaults During the Killings and in Detention6. Mutilation and Sexual Violence 7. Humiliation and the Strip-Searching of Women and Girls 8. Sexual Slavery and Istri Diambil (Wife-taking) 9. Conclusions
Annie Pohlman teaches in the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia
"Pohlman presents a convincing account of “what women were saying”
and provides critical understanding in relation to sexual violence
in studies of conflict and mass social turbulence. The gendered and
gendering effects of sexual violence against women and girls in
1965-66 is likely to have a continuing influence on Indonesia’s
contemporary history discourse regarding that period. Despite
anti-communism in Indonesia still existing and being used as a
general tool for the suppression of dissent, these women’s
testimonies and experiences can generate public recognition and
acknowledgment about what has happened and been ignored or
silenced. This is the kind of book that needs to be read by
Indonesians and, therefore, needs to be translated into Bahasa
Indonesia." - Dewi Ratnawulan
Rapid Asia, Thailand"Women, Sexual Violence and the Indonesian
Killings is a valuable contribution to the literature on the 1965
violence in Indonesia. It provides an extremely important
perspective on the impact of this violence on women and girls. It
attends to this topic with sensitivity and dignity. It is a
difficult read at times, but it is an essential one for those
interested in Indonesia’s history and politics, mass violence and
atrocities, and the particular experiences of women and girls.
Pohlman’s book subtly, sensitively, yet persuasively demands
acknowledgement of and justice for the crimes perpetrated against
women and others during this violent period of Indonesia’s past." -
Hannah Loney, Inside Indonesia
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