_August, 1901._[1]
I should be so glad, so happy, if I could be in a position to lead
children's hearts, to form little characters, to awaken young minds, to
help to mould the women of the future who will be able to carry forward
enlightenment like a torch. There is much misery in our Javanese woman's
world, there has always been so much suffering, so much bitterness.
The only road which lies open to a Javanese girl, and above all to one
of noble birth, is marriage.
From far and near we know of the horrible misery of the woman caused by
certain Mohammedan institutions that are so easy for the man, but oh, so
bitterly hard and miserable for her.
"She soon grows accustomed to it, she finds that it is nothing," say the
wise men, and then "We should have no more peace if we put such ideas
into her head."
Let me, a child of Java, nourished at her breast, who has lived here all
her life, assure you that the native women have honest, simple hearts
that can feel and suffer as well as the most delicate, sensitive woman's
heart in your country.
But here there is a suppressed suffering which consumes itself. For she
feels herself powerless and defenceless through her ignorance and
inexperience.
The old traditions speak. Fatima's bridegroom takes a new wife and she
is asked by the prophet what she feels: "Nothing, Father, nothing," she
declared. And while saying this she leaned against a banana tree; the
leaves, formerly fresh and green, withered, and the trunk against which
her body rested shrivelled into ashes.
Again the Father asked her what she felt and she said, "Nothing, Father,
nothing."
The Father gave her a raw egg and bade her hold it against her heart; he
asked her to give it back to him, he broke it open and the egg was
cooked.
The Eastern woman's heart has not changed. Many think it an honour to
tolerate with unmoved countenances the one or more women their husbands
have brought home, but do not ask what is hidden behind that iron mask,
or what the walls of their dwellings could tell when the eyes of the
world are removed. There are so many burning women's hearts, with poor,
innocent, suffering, childlike souls.
And it was the misery that I saw, even in my childish years, that first
awakened in me the desire to fight against these time-honoured customs,
and substitute justice for old tradition.
Our work will have a two-fold aim, first to help to enlighten all our
people, and secondly to raise up our sisters, so that they may live and
be treated as human beings. To all of you who have sympathy for Java,
and the Javanese, we send an urgent prayer--help us to realize our
ideals; they mean so much to our people and to our sex.
Raise the Javanese woman, educate her heart and her understanding, and
you will have splendid workers to co-operate with you in your noble
work, your giant's work, the work of civilizing and enlightening a whole
nation.
Teach her a trade, so that she will no longer be powerless when her
guardians command her to contract a marriage which will inevitably
plunge her and whatever children she may have into misery.
The only escape from such conditions is for the girl herself to learn to
be independent.
There is no one yet who does it, who dares do it.
It is a disgrace for a girl not to marry, to remain an unprotected
woman.
Our idea is to open, as soon as we have the means, an institute for the
daughters of Native chiefs, where they will be fitted for practical life
and will be taught as well the things which elevate the spirit, and
ennoble the mind.
Would such a school succeed? We are bold enough to answer "Yes." Many of
the native chiefs send their daughters to school now, but it is only for
the accomplishments, and not because they expect it to be of any
practical use; or of real benefit to the woman herself. Still that does
not minimize the importance of the fact that more and more, they are
educating their daughters. The many government and private schools can
testify to the truth of this. Even the Emperor of Solo sends his
daughters to school.
In progressive Preanger, where the education of girls is no new thing, a
special school for daughters of the nobles, subsidized by the
Government, has been opened. There are even Regents' daughters who go to
a domestic school in a strange place!
Then there are many parents who would like to send their daughters to
school, yet refuse to send them where they would have to study with
boys. The expense of having a governess is far beyond the means of an
ordinary native magistrate, only a few are able to afford it. No wedona
who has not an independent fortune can keep a governess for his little
daughter.
There was a young mother who asked her husband on the last day of her
life as a dying request, to carry out one of her dreams, which was, as
soon as he should be in better circumstances, to send her little
daughter to the European school.
We have talked over this question, and also the idea of an independent
self-supporting woman, many times with the wives of native chiefs, and
all of them have strengthened us in our belief that some one is only
needed to take the first step; to set the example, and then the path
will have been opened and others will follow it. There are many girls
who think and feel as we and who would be glad to break the bonds in
which the Mohammedan law holds them cloistered. But they remain
quiescent before that "There is no one now who does it."
There must be some one to be first.
There is a native chief who sought permission from the Director of
Education for his daughter to enter the medical school. Thrice blessed
Father--thrice blessed daughter! she will be of great service to her
country. I hope that she will be able to carry out her intentions.
A younger sister of mine, Roekmini, has a great love for painting and it
is her wish to be able to study at the Art Academy, so that later she
may work for the development of our native art. Does not a people's art
go hand in hand with a people's civilization? And if she found that the
Art Academy was not the place for her, that she had not sufficient
talent, then she could go to the Household School and later teach the
future women the worth of money, which would be a very useful thing for
our people.
My sister and I should then be able to work together. And what we are
most anxious to have taught in our future schools is hygiene, and a
knowledge of sanitation and nursing. Hygiene and nursing should be part
of one's education. So many misfortunes could have been averted or at
least reduced to a minimum, if every one, men, as well as women, had
been taught something of this useful study.
It is not in the least our intention to try to make European-Javanese of
the Javanese by giving them liberal educations; our idea is to develop
the fine qualities that are peculiar to their race; to help them to gain
by contact with another civilization, not to the detraction of their
own, but to its enoblement.
* * * * *
I enjoyed your introduction so much to "The Land and People of Java." It
warmed my heart to read the charming manner in which the beauty of my
country was pictured and its wonder places described.
Often an overpowering feeling of happiness comes over us, when we are
out in God's free nature. Far from the doings of little souled men,
alone with nature; above our heads the blue heavens and at our feet the
unfathomable sea, behind us waving cocoanut palms. Oh! who would not be
happy amid such surroundings?
Sometimes I am betrayed into an egotistical thought, "Oh, let me live
alone in this pure atmosphere, far from the noise of the market place,
from worldly cares, alone with nature, and with my own soul!" That is
pure egoism! it is not the voice of life, we are meant to live with and
for humanity. But I have kept you too long already; you have other and
more useful things to do than to read all this prattle from a
"sentimental" Javanese girl.
[1] To Mevrouw Van Kol.