Violence-based women’s historiography: the hidden aspects of the Military Operations Zone (DOM) implementation in Aceh, 1989–1998

The implementation of the Military Operation Area (DOM) in Aceh from 1989 to 1998 triggered various forms of violence against women, influencing the historiography of Acehnese women. This paper examines those forms of violence and their impact on historical narratives. Using a feminist oral history approach through interviews and literature review the research follows four stages: heuristics (source collection), source criticism, interpretation, and writing. The DOM policy, as a military counter-insurgency effort by the central government against GAM, gave rise to physical, psychological, and sexual violence towards women. These acts of violence functioned as collective punishment, political tools, and terror strategies to suppress resistance. Based on literature from 1998–2023, two dominant narratives appear in Acehnese women’s historiography: the narrative of women who resist and those who survive. The former is symbolized by Inong Balee, representing female resistance against the military, while the latter includes women who endured and adapted to the conflict. Although DOM weakened GAM, it also resulted in widespread human rights violations. Therefore, studying the historiography of Acehnese women during the DOM era provides a vital lens to understand the conflict from women’s perspectives and how their collective memory is documented.