Birth and youth
Ratna Indraswari was born in Malang on 24 April 1949.[1] She was the youngest of six children.[2] Both her parents, Saleh Ibrahim and Siti Bidasari binti Arifin, were Minangkabau, although they lived in Malang, which is not predominantly Minangkabau.[1] Her father, Saleh Ibrahim, encouraged her to read[3] and obtained numerous books for her, which she read, thus familiarizing herself with literature from an early age.[3] She became tetraplegic at the age of 10[3] after a prolonged fever and illness related to rickets.[2]
After attending Christian primary school,[2] junior high, and high school in Malang, she began studies at the faculty of business administration at Brawijaya University, but she quickly abandoned them.[1]
Literary career and commitments
In 1974 she began writing with the help of an assistant who transcribed what she dictated, thus managing to produce her works.[1][3] The fact that she had to dictate to write led her to describe her own work as "oral literature".[3] An extremely prolific author, she began publishing in 1974 and never stopped, mostly producing short stories, but also novels and poetry.[1][3] It is estimated that Indraswari created at least 400 different literary works.[3]
Alongside her artistic and literary activities, she became involved in the human rights movement[4] by joining various Indonesian organizations in the 1970s and 1980s.[1] By 1980, she was appointed president of the Bhakti Nurani Association for the disabled.[2] In 2000, she became head of research and development for the Kean 'Payung' Association.[1] Her activism took her abroad, including trips to the United States and China to attend feminist and women's rights gatherings such as the Women's Congress.[1] She also won several awards, including one from Femina magazine.[2]
Her commitment to democracy led to surveillance by the Indonesian authorities; in 1998, during the May 1998 riots of Indonesia, her house was searched by Indonesian intelligence services looking for hidden individuals, without success.[2]
She was sometimes nicknamed "Ratu Lebah", which means "queen of the bees".[4] In 2003, she published Lemah Tanjung, which discusses a corrupt real estate project destroying the environment in Indonesia.[2] Before publishing the book, she participated in protests against the project, despite being limited by her tetraplegia.[2]
Her last novel, 1998, completed before her death but published posthumously, revisits the 1998 riots.[2][5] Indraswari died from the complications of a stroke on 28 March 2011.[2][6]
