In the words of Humaira: “Activism means having the courage to speak up when you see something wrong”
Date:
Interviewed by Radhiska Anggiana and Ryan Rihi
Humaira is a private sector employee at a consulting firm and a Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion Specialist at Emancipate Indonesia, a non-profit foundation focused on eliminating modern slavery and supporting young workers' welfare. Her activism sits at the intersection of advocacy for workers' rights fulfilment, gender equality, disability and social inclusion. Since 2024, Humaira, or Maira as she is commonly known, has also been an active member of the National Gender Youth Activists of UN Women Indonesia.
I am deeply drawn to the issue of gender equality, particularly women workers’ rights, because it hits close to home for me as a woman navigating a professional career. Women can now enter the workforce, yet female workers continue to face discrimination. I see gender gaps playing out in the workplace, from wage disparities and unequal promotions to harassment. On more than one occasion, I have witnessed my female colleagues subjected to verbal harassment and even became the victim myself.
Through Emancipate Indonesia, we advocate for the elimination of modern slavery and the fulfilment of young workers’ rights. Emancipate Indonesia serves as a platform for young people to push for those rights to be met. We work to speak up through social media content. Our objective is not to solve the problem ourselves, but to be a platform that compels stakeholders to take action.
To me, activism is as simple as having the courage to speak up when you see something wrong. Activism is not about perfectionism; we can learn as we go. That said, it is not without its challenges. The challenge I face most is finding ways to communicate relevantly across very different groups of people.
I often encounter people who reject my ideas from the outset, simply because they see me as a feminist, or as someone too young. Every day, I have to seek insight from different generations, different groups and different social classes. I have to understand how to choose the right words for the right people.
From my own experience, I see that youth activism matters. Young people understand how to take issues that once felt inapproachable, such as gender equality and workers' rights, and make them more relevant and more accessible to a wider audience, thanks to their closeness to, and ability to leverage, technology.
Activism is a long and lonely path. But as they say in Star Wars: “rebellion is built on hope.” There is hope, and hope is the only thing we have – the thing that keeps us going. At the same time, the most important thing in the pursuit of gender equality is solidarity. I am a true believer in people power. I believe that when people are united, when we have one thing to solve and we focus on it together, we can overcome even the greatest forces standing against us.”
