by CARMEL BUDIARDJO
Review: Petrus Tegeke presents a detailed account of the position of women in West Papua
A poster which has been hanging in my office for many years carries the slogan, ‘West Papua, An Issue Whose Time Has Come’. I received it from a friend not long after East Timor became independent in 2002. Since then, the struggle of the Papuan people has gained greater attention around the world, their grinding poverty in a land of plenty and their anger at becoming part of Indonesia following a blatantly fraudulent Act of ‘Free Choice’ in 1969.
Unable to visit Papua, which is closed to foreign journalists and human rights activists, I have relied on books and pleas for help on the internet to follow events. Occasionally I have met with Papuan men and women activists who have fled their homeland in fear of their lives. But I was able to learn very little about the conditions of Papuan women until I was sent a copy of this book.
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