Indonesien. What’s Life Like for Women Who Use Drugs in Indonesia? It’s Time We Asked Them
In 2005, Merry Christina and her boyfriend were arrested while injecting heroin in the backstreets of a South Jakarta slum. Over the following four days, Christina was drugged, blindfolded, and gang-raped repeatedly by police officers, while her boyfriend was beaten and tortured in a separate cell. To secure her freedom, the police demanded Rp 95 million ($7,500)—a bribe equivalent to four years of her salary.
Disturbingly, Christina’s ordeals are not unique. According to the Ministry of Health, Indonesia is home to an estimated 74,000 people who inject drugs, about 11 percent of whom are women. Women who inject drugs suffer the social repercussions of drug use and dependence differently than men, often with worse outcomes.
Those are among the findings of Perempuan Bersuara (Women Speak Out), a research project coordinated by the Indonesian Network of People Who Use Drugs and the University of Oxford. Christina and over 700 other women who inject drugs—from Jakarta, West Java, and Banten provinces—participated, making this the largest quantitative study of its kind in Indonesia. Their experiences of drug use, policing, violence, and health care are summarized in a new report, Women Speak Out: Understanding Women Who Inject Drugs in Indonesia. OSF – Open Society Foundations, 08.03.2017)