An Indonesian woman who was facing a domestic violence charge due to alleged nagging was recently acquitted by a local court in West Java. 

About the case: The Karawang District Court found 45-year-old housewife Nengsy Lim, alias Valencya, not guilty of her alleged crime on Dec. 3, reported South China Morning Post. 

• Lim was charged with domestic violence in January for allegedly causing her then husband psychological harm by “nagging” him.
• According to UCA News, prosecutors claimed that Lim “often scolded her husband, Chan Yung Chin, harshly and kicked him out the house.”
• Chin, who was identified as Taiwanese, reported her to authorities in Sept. 2020.
• The mother of two, who testified to a panel of judges that her husband was usually drunk, broke into tears when she was absolved by the court from the charge.
• A guilty verdict would have resulted in a possible one-year prison sentence for her. 

Online support: Lim’s case attracted social media attention, sparking an online campaign that aimed to shed light on the double standards through which authorities interpret and execute Indonesia’s domestic violence law.

• Online discussions highlighted how much faster authorities processed the case of the “nagging wife” over cases that involve sexual and physical domestic violence toward women.
• The hashtag #savevalencya went viral on Indonesian social media and gained coverage from Indonesia’s local media. An online petition calling for Lim’s acquittal garnered over 7,400 signatures. 
• “Without the support from the public, I can’t imagine what would’ve happened to me,” Lim later told the press. 
• The Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice similarly attributed the court’s decision to the success of the online campaign. 
• “It went viral because of attention from the public,” the foundation’s  director Situ Zuma was quoted as saying. “On this occasion, we have the media to thank for raising it in the public consciousness.”
• Indonesian women’s rights advocate Tunggal Pawestri lamented how domestic violence remains a major challenge in the country.
• “Although we already have the domestic violence law, its implementation on the ground is still lacking, particularly from a law enforcement perspective,” Pawestri was quoted as saying.

According to the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), 78.7% of the 8,234  reported incidents of violence against women in 2020 were domestic violence cases, reported The Jakarta Post.

Featured Image via KOMPASTV