Building Acehnese Women’s writing habit

Building Acehnese Women’s writing habit

By Tabrani Yunis

Some famous writers may say that writing is easy. There is nothing wrong with these sayings. It may be easy because the writer is skilful and writing has become a habit in his life. But, what about those people who do not have enough knowledge and less access to media, such as women? The answer must be different. When we are discussing about the differences, there will some factors included in the factors. One of the factors is the gender inequality between man and women in accessing the media. More people say that women have less access to public media such as newspapers, magazines, etc. This limited access has caused very few women can write in the public media which are published in Indonesia to day. May be this statement is debatable. But, however the facts show that very few women to day can write in the public media, even the local media. Most spaces in the media written by men. Women have become a silence majority.

Factually, women as the major population in Aceh and also in Indonesia are potential resources and stakeholders in media. The reality is that the number of women in Aceh is bigger than men. More than 53 percents of the populations are women. Even they are big, they are voiceless or soundless, because they have been marginalized and ignored or tends to be neglected. The fact also shows that women face various and big problems in their life, but the problems just being hidden. Every thing seems left in the silence. It is a big problem that should be solved by women. Even, women also potential as the consumers of the media and also as the contributors in colouring media with women’s writing. Unfortunately, most spaces in the printed media are not utilized by women because of some obstacles.