The realization of women's dreams and courage due to culture
Changes in the current era in people's lives indeed bring a lot of changes from many things one of them in terms of culture or tradition, but in fact there are still many traditions that suppress women. Women are less given the discretion in taking or determining a decision in a society, community views about women have a big influence on developments in women's welfare, comparisons between women and men and society's mistrust of women make women often do not speak up, in some areas women are considered as human beings who must always accept the decision, many communities in an area are of the view that women has no major contribution in the outside world.
One tradition that makes it difficult for women to determine the future is child marriage. Child marriages are still widely practiced in the culture of an area in Indonesia, one of them is in the Madura area of East Java, in Sampang cases of child marriages reached 17.47 percent, Pamekasan reached 19.39 percent and Sumenep reached 41.72 percent. Of the 9,000 marriages per year in the Sumenep area, more than 60 percent are child practices. In this area child marriage is a tradition that is considered by society to be carried out by girls and girls are not allowed to reject it. The community in this area considers that if the girls reject it then it is a disgrace for their parents. This is also reinforced by the view of the community if the female child does not immediately get a match, it will be very embarrassing for the parents of girls. Actually, many girls who disagree with this tradition, they try to reject and oppose this marriage, but with the view of society that will befall both parents, causing many girls or women who choose to be silent and not fight.
In a research in Dungkek Sumenep sub-district in 2017 on 25 informants who were married when they were children many of which ended in divorce. In this case many motifs were revealed in the validity of child marriages in the Madura area, the first parents did this child marriage with the aim of taking a ride or a tradition of taking back donations that had been given to neighbors or relatives who had conducted a wedding first. The money obtained from the return of donations usually reaches 100 - 200 million, the use of children as brides in the celebration aims to withdraw the donation funds that have been previously issued by parents, so some parents often force their daughters to become brides . Then what is the reason for the child to approve this marriage even though this marriage is not wanted? One reason is that girls prefer to save and preserve their parents' dignity from the view of society.
Culture has indeed become a tradition of hereditary habits in Indonesian society, but with the development of the age of tradition must be able to bring a positive impact on all communities, people should also be able to think more advanced, the community must have the view that women and men have the same position in In the eyes of the law, women have the right to have desires and ideals, society and tradition should not bind women to the culture and traditions that will make it difficult for them to develop and progress. In this millennial era, women have been able to contribute greatly to the world, a society that has a view that women do not have a big contribution to the world is a mistake.
Society must understand the important role of women in society and the world, society should be more supportive of women to progress, women must get the same rights as men in reaching the future, women have the right to make decisions about themselves, and women also have the right to education. In addition, women must also have dreams and aspirations, and courage in making decisions, every woman must be able to prove that women are not weak but women have the right to progress and be able to progress, women must be independent so that women can solve their own problems and the community should provide support for women to progress and develop. Seeing the importance of the role of women in society, women are the first madrasa for their children, so women must be able to develop, because women have the main role to produce a quality generation of the nation. Actually doing culture or tradition is very permissible, but it must be implemented in a positive manner and not detrimental to others.
Every society must understand and be aware of the important role of women in society, society should not pressure women to obey traditions in society. Culture and tradition must be able to have a positive impact on all societies and society must have advanced thinking. They must not discriminate between women and men, but society must give women the freedom to advance and develop and support the development of women. Dinda Dwi Pangestu Ningrum
