From the Desk of Miss Know All: Arouse the 'Kartini' within you...

(Published on 8 August 2006 in 'Women at Work' - W @ W - a supplement of the Daily Mirror, Colombo, Sri Lanka)


April 21 is observed as “Hari Kartini” or Kartini Day in Indonesia and is remembered as the day of women’s emancipation that was initiated by a woman called Kartini. The day is an important date in the school calendar on which students explore the role of women within a family, within society and within history.

Kartini was born on 21April 1879 in the province of Central Java. Among the first Javanese to acquire some western education, Kartini realised that the choices it encouraged her to make, were also the right of all her people. Her voice was and still is heard through the written words of her letters. She used her strength as an educated woman to set about making changes in the life of women in her immediate vicinity through education.

In June 1902 Kartini wrote, “What I mean by a liberal education is firstly to nurture Javanese people to become real Javanese, awakening within them a deep love for their nation and country. We would like to share with them all the good things of Western culture, not to replace or erase the beauty of their own culture but rather to bring out the radiance of that culture.” Kartini demonstrated that change comes from within ourselves and from within our homes. Rather than reject, change respects and embraces tradition, while carrying forward a culture that has shaped the identity of a people over generations.

In 1903, Kartini obtained permission to open the first ever all-girls’ school in her own home. Unfortunately, Kartini died a year later and did not live to see the first of a series of Kartini Schools which was opened in 1916. These pioneering schools began to break down resistance to girls’ education. Co-education became possible and education as a whole began to expand in the influence of Kartini’s ideas.

Kartini’s life and work demonstrated to her people the need for self esteem as individuals and the need for an identity as a nation. The objective of celebrating Kartini Day is to ensure that this identity is born, reborn and develops down generations. Kartini has reinforced the belief that children need to bring the strengths of their own family traditions and culture with them as they experience cultures that are different to their own.

The need of the hour is to arouse the ‘Kartini’ that lives within us. Let us be true to ourselves and hold fast to that which is good, while embracing change as a positive growth factor. Let us not forget our roots.

Miss Know-All
wow@dailymirror.wnl.lk