Reading Indonesian and Malaysian Young Adult Novels: Capturing the Image of Young Muslim Women in Indonesia and Malaysia

<p class="p17">A number of novel remaja, which mean young adult novels, written by women writers from Indonesia and Malaysia have been published. Writing competitions held by book publishers and language centers have also encouraged the production of the novels. However, since they address youth as their readers and tend to consider the characters, issues, language, and values that appeal to the modern young adult; therefore, some critics say that the novels only respond to the demands of the reader market and they are less creative and lack of quality. In this paper I demonstrate the value of Indonesian and Malaysian novel remaja by examining four novels which are Siti Zaleha M. Hashim’s Biarkan Kupu-Kupu Terbang (“Let the Butterfly Fly”), Rumah Cinta Kelana (“The Love House of Kelana”), written by Sofie Dewayani, Nisah Haron’s Mencari Locus Standi (“Finding the Defense Locus”), and Jadilah Purnamaku Ning written by Khilma Anis. I argue that those novels do not only explore young adults’ feelings, including romance, fear, sadness, happiness, and challenges, but they also describe important themes which may inspire young readers, such as how young Muslim women deal with their identity formation, living in a single mother family, and polygamy.</p><p class="p0"> </p><p><em>Novel-novel remaja karya penulis perempuan banyak diterbitkan di Indonesia dan Malaysia. Lomba menulis yang diadakan oleh penerbit buku dan pusat bahasa juga mendorong banyaknya produksi novel-novel tersebut. Namun, karena novel remaja menyasar remaja</em><em> </em><em>sebagai pembacanya, novel tersebut ditulis dengan mempertimbangkan karakter, isu, bahasa, dan nilai-nilai yang menarik bagi remaja modern. Sehingga, beberapa kritikus mengatakan bahwa novel remaja hanya menjawab tuntutan pasar pembaca dan kurang kreatif serta berkualitas. Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk menunjukkan nilai positif novel remaja yang terbit di Indonesia dan Malaysia dengan menelaah empat novel. Yaitu, Biarkan Kupu-Kupu Terbang karya Siti Zaleha M. Hashim, Rumah Cinta Kelana yang ditulis oleh Sofie Dewayani, Mencari Locus Standi karya Nisah Haron, dan Jadilah Purnamaku Ning ­yang ditulis oleh Khilma Anis. Saya berpendapat bahwa novel-novel tersebut tidak hanya mengeksplorasi perasaan remaja, termasuk percintaan, ketakutan, kesedihan, kebahagiaan, dan tantangan hidup, tetapi juga menggambarkan tema-tema penting</em><em> </em><em>yang dapat menginspirasi pembaca remaja. Misalnya, tema tentang bagaimana remaja Muslim perempuan menjalani proses pembentukan jati diri, hidup bersama keluarga dengan ibu tunggal, dan poligami, bahkan juga mengkritisi ketimpangan posisi perempuan di dalam masyarakat</em><em>.</em><em></em></p>

Choice Mums and Children’s Education. Does Feminism Matter? A Qualitative Study

The aim of this article is to analyse and compare the experiences of self-labelled feminist and non-feminist women who have consciously chosen to be single mothers. This article contributes to the literature by providing a Spanish context to the experiences of single mothers by choice. Scant research currently exists on the specific characteristics of this type of family and on the influence of gender composition. Furthermore, no research has been conducted on the comparison between feminist and non-feminist single mothers by choice and how their different perspectives may affect their children’s education. The principal argument of this paper is based on four central themes developed from the data: a) The women participating in this study have opted to be single mothers by choice because they have not found a suitable partner; b) Being single mothers by choice has, for all of them, entailed a transgressive and empowering decision with regard to the traditional nuclear family; c) The feminist participants anchor their decision to be a single-mother family by choice in their feminism, which is also reflected in the critical pedagogy that they practise in their children´s education and in the choice of secular schooling; and d) For the non-feminist participants, the empowering and emancipatory aspect of being a single mother by choice, their educational level, professional success and economic independence do not have an impact on their patriarchal beliefs, and prefer Catholic schools for their children.

Family structure and children’s unmet health-care needs

This study assessed children’s unmet health-care needs within different family types (two-parent biological/adoptive, two-parent stepfamily, and single-mother family type) using data from the 2011/2012 National Survey of Children’s Health. Findings indicate that 10.4% of children in single-mother family types had unmet health-care needs compared to 8.7% of children from a two-parent stepfamily and 5.3% for those from two-parent biological/adoptive families. Further analyses revealed racial/ethnic disparities with Black children from two parent-biological/adoptive families being 1.54 (95% confidence interval 1.13, 2.05) times more likely to have unmet health-care needs, while Hispanic children were less likely to have unmet health-care needs relative to their white counterparts. Children from lower income two-parent families had a higher likelihood of unmet health-care needs. The noncontinuous insurance coverage was a risk factor for increasing unmet health-care needs across all three different family types. These findings show major differences in unmet health-care needs among children living in different family structure types. It is recommended that interventions for increasing access to care need to be tailored differently across various family types in order to achieve continuous and sufficient health-care services for our children.