page_title: Kartini
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Kartini / Biography
caption_attribution_description: Bahasa Indonesia: Foto. Hari Kartini. Nederlands: Foto. Hari Kartini.
context_page_description: Raden Adjeng Kartini, sometimes known as Raden Ayu Kartini, was a prominent Indonesian national hero from Java. She was a pioneer in the area of education for girls and women's rights for Indonesians.
  Born into an aristocratic Javanese family in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, she attended a Dutch-language primary school. She aspired to further education but the option was unavailable to her and other girls in Javanese society. She came into contact with various officials and influential people, including J.H. Abendanon, who was in charge of implementing the Dutch Ethical Policy.
  Kartini wrote letters about her ideas and feelings, and they were published in a Dutch magazine and later as: Out of Darkness to Light, Women's Life in the Village, and Letters of a Javanese Princess. Her birthday is now celebrated as Kartini Day in Indonesia. She took an interest in mysticism and opposed polygamy. Her advocacy for the education of girls was continued by her sisters. Kartini Schools were named for her and a fund established in her name to fund the education of girls.
context_section_description: Kartini was born into an aristocratic Javanese family when Java was part of the Dutch colony of the Dutch East Indies. Kartini's father Sosroningrat became Regency Chief of Jepara. Kartini's father was originally the district chief of Mayong. Her mother Ngasirah was the daughter of Madirono and a teacher of religion in Telukawur. She was his first wife but not the most important one. At this time, polygamy was a common practice among the nobility. Colonial regulations required a regency chief to marry a member of the nobility. Since Ngasirah was not of sufficiently high nobility, Sosroningrat married a second time to Woerjan (Moerjam), a direct descendant of the Raja of Madura. After this second marriage, Kartini's father was elevated to Regency Chief of Jepara, replacing his second wife's own father, Tjitrowikromo.
  Kartini was the fifth child and second-eldest daughter in a family of eleven, including half siblings. She was born into a family with a strong intellectual tradition. Her grandfather, Pangeran Ario Tjondronegoro IV, became a regency chief at the age of 25, while Kartini's older brother Sosrokartono was an accomplished linguist. Kartini's family allowed her to attend school until she was 12 years old. Here, among other subjects, she learned to speak Dutch, an unusual accomplishment for Javanese women at the time. After she turned 12 she was secluded (pingit) at home, a common practice among Javanese nobility, to prepare young girls for their marriage.  During seclusion girls were not allowed to leave their parents' house until they were married, at which point authority over them was transferred to their husbands. Kartini's father was more lenient than some during his daughter's seclusion, giving her such privileges as embroidery lessons and occasional appearances in public for special events.
  During her seclusion, Kartini continued to educate herself on her own.  Because she could speak Dutch, she acquired several Dutch pen friends.  One of them, a girl by the name of Rosa Abendanon, became a close friend. Books, newspapers, and European magazines fed Kartini's interest in European feminist thinking, and fostered the desire to improve the conditions of indigenous Indonesian women, who at that time had a very low social status.
  Kartini's reading included the Semarang newspaper, to which she began to send contributions which were published. Before she was 20 she had read Max Havelaar and Love Letters by Multatuli. She also read De Stille Kracht (The Hidden Force) by Louis Couperus, the works of Frederik van Eeden, Augusta de Witt, the Romantic-Feminist author Goekoop de-Jong Van Eek, and an anti-war novel by Berta von Suttner, Die Waffen Nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!). All were in Dutch.
  Kartini's concerns were not only in the area of the emancipation of women, but also other problems of her society. Kartini saw that the struggle for women to obtain their freedom, autonomy, and legal equality was just part of a wider movement.
  Kartini's parents arranged her marriage to Joyodiningrat, the Regency Chief of Rembang, who already had three wives. She was married on 12 November 1903. Her husband understood Kartini's aims and allowed her to establish a school for women in the east porch of the Rembang Regency Office complex. Kartini's only son was born on 13 September 1904. A few days later on 17 September 1904, Kartini died at the age of 25. She was buried in Bulu Village, Rembang.
  Inspired by R.A. Kartini's example, the Van Deventer family established the R.A. Kartini Foundation which built schools for women, 'Kartini's Schools' in Semarang in 1912, followed by other women's schools in Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Malang, Madiun, Cirebon and other areas.
  In 1964, President Sukarno declared R.A. Kartini's birth date, 21 April, as "Kartini Day"—an Indonesian national holiday. This decision has been criticized. It has been proposed that Kartini Day should be celebrated in conjunction with Indonesian Mothers Day on 22 December, so that the choice of R.A. Kartini as a national heroine would not overshadow other women who, unlik
caption: Commemoration of Kartini Day in 1953
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