In the midst of her busy schedule teaching at the Faculty of Letters, University of Indonesia, Melani Budianta still finds time to dedicate herself to women’s issues. Melani began actively involved in the women’s movement when the critical political situation reached its peak in 1998. It all started when a demonstration demanding the decrease of high milk price was organized by women, because people could not afford to buy milk. This movement developed further and became a media to speak out about injustice. The group was named The Voices of Concerned Mother and Melani was one of the founders. The movement of these mothers which were supported by the women’s group as well as students inspired Melani and she wrote about it in the article, “The Blessed Tragedy: The Making of Women’s Activism during the Reformasi Years (1998-1999)” which was published in the book, “In Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia: Comparing Malaysia and Indonesia”, 2003.

Although literature is her expertise (she attained her Doctor’s degree in English literature from Cornell University, The United States in 1992), a lot of her writings are related to women’s issues. An example is her paper presented in the ARENA Congress in Malaysia, 2003, entitled: “Celebrating Yayori: Women’s Response to Globalization of war and capital.” Also her paper presented at an international meeting in Okinawa, Japan in 2000, “Women’s Response to Militaristic Security; The Case of Aceh Women.” Her interest in women’s issues brought her to establish the Women Research Institute (WRI) in 2002, a research institute founded on gender perspective. ***