Suraiya Kamaruzzaman

Suraiya Kamaruzzaman (born ) is an Acehnese human rights activist, known for her advocacy for women living in Aceh, an autonomous region of Indonesia, both during and after the insurgency in Aceh.

Activism Kamaruzzaman was born and raised in Aceh, studying chemical engineering at Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh, the province's capital.

Aceh had a long-running insurgency between the Free Aceh Movement, a separatist group seeking independence for Aceh, and the Indonesian government. The insurgency had already been going on for 13 years when Kamaruzzaman founded Flower Aceh, a non-governmental organisation that supported Acehnese women who had been the victims of violence, including sexual violence, during the conflict. Flower Aceh sought to empower women in Aceh by ensuring their safety and offering advice on economic and reproductive issues; during the conflict, Kamaruzzaman came under suspicion by both the Indonesian military and the Free Aceh Movement.

Kamaruzzaman identified 128 rape cases and 91 sexual harassment cases against Acehnese women by the Indonesian military during the conflict between 1989 and 1998, as well as an incident of mass rape against Chinese women in May 1998. While praising the government of Abdurrahman Wahid for forming a Human Rights Ministry and establishing a Commission of Inquiry into Violations to investigate human rights abuses, including in Aceh, she criticised the failure to make any charges in relation to rape and sexual assault during the insurgency, as well as a failure of the reforms to bring to an end the issues of human rights abuses, conflict and malnutrition in Aceh. In 1999, Kamaruzzaman spoke at the International Human Rights Conference in Geneva, Switzerland about the experiences of Acehenese women during wartime; she also lobbied the European Parliament about providing aid to help peacebuilders in Aceh. She has sought a reevaluation of the role Acehnese women played during the conflict, including running households while men fought against the army, and retrieving and burying people killed. In 2000, she founded the Acehnese Women's Congress , which developed its own women'sw movement, Balai Syura Ureung Inong Aceh.

Kamaruzzaman is currently a lecturer in the engineering department of Syiah Kuala University, and the head of its USK Climate Change Research Centre.

Recognition In 2001, Kamaruzzaman received the Yap Thiam Hien Award from the Human Rights Study Centre Foundation in Jakarta in recognition of her "very solid track record in women empowerment in socio-economic life, and the defence of the rights of women who often fell victims to violence by the military or to sexual violence in conflict-torn Aceh".

In 2012, Kamaruzzaman received the N-Peace Award, sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme.