Autor: Saskia E. Wieringa

Nursyahbani Katjasungkana is a human rights lawyer and has been working for 30 years with several NGOs focusing on human and women“s rights organizations and environmental issues. She was a director of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute and a President of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (WALHI). From 1998–2003, she was a Commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women. She is the co-founder of APIK, Asosiasi Perempuan Indonesia untuk Keadilan (Indonesian Women“s Association for Justice), an organization that gives direct legal aid to women who are victims of violence and discrimination, and active in the field of legal advocacy, training and conduct research. Presently she is the National Coordinator of the Indonesian Federation of Women“s Legal Aid Society with 15 branches from Aceh to Papua. She has published five books on legal issues and violence against women as well as numerous articles on those topics.Saskia E. Wieringa is the Director of Aletta, the Institute for Women“s History in Amsterdam and an honorary Professor at the University of Amsterdam, holding the Chair on Gender and Women“s Cross-cultural Same-Sex Relations. She has a long experience of activism in both the women“s and third world solidarity movements. Since the mid-1970s, she has co-founded several women“s groups, mainly in the area of women“s studies, and has co-founded a journal. She has published over 20 books and more than 100 articles on the above topics. Her latest books include: Female Desires: Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices Across Cultures; Sexual Politics in Indonesia; Lubang Buaya, a novel in Indonesian; Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men and Ancestral Wives: Women“s Same Sex Experiences in Southern Africa; Engendering Human Security; Women“s Sexualities and Masculinities in a Globalizing Asia; and Traveling Heritages, Amsterdam Aksant.