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ELT FORUM 12 (3) (2023) 

 

Journal of English Language Teaching 

 
http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt 

 

 

Understanding feminist issues by reading Daniyal Mueenuddin’s “In Other 

Rooms, Other Wonders” in a prose class 

 

Sri Sumaryani🖂1, Maria Johana Ari Widayanti1, Ruly Indra Darmawan1 
 
1Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia 

 

Article Info 
________________ 
Article History: 
Received on 18 
October 2023 

Approved on 29 
November 2023 
Published on 30 
November 2023 

________________ 
Keywords: Contextual 
Approach; English 
literature; feminist 
issue;, EFL 
____________________ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract 
___________________________________________________________________ 
The teaching of English literary works in a foreign language context remains a textual-
oriented activity. Students were required to comprehend the linguistic and thematic 

features of the texts. However, more often than not, students were not aware of the real 

sociocultural, economic, and political conditions from which the text was based because 
they focused more on understanding the textual contents of the text. In Indonesia where 

English was still considered as a foreign language, the phenomenon was common. This 
paper examined the results of a contextual approach given to students when discussing a 

literary text. The contextual approach was implemented in three stages: pre-reading 
activities; reading, discussing, and analyzing the text by paying attention to its linguistic 

features and plot; and connecting the text with real-life situations. The study involved 31 

English Literature students at Universitas Negeri Semarang from the third semester. The 
text discussed was a short story titled “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders” which 

contained feminist issues. The researchers also used questionnaires and observed the 
students’ activities during the three stages to enrich the data. The results revealed that the 

approach helped the students to understand feminist issues more comprehensively. They 
were able to relate the circumstances depicted in the story with the real sociocultural, 

economic, and political conditions of the society where the story was based. The results 

also suggested that the method was effective in developing the students’ literacy skills.

 

  
Correspondence Address: p-ISSN 2252-6706 | e-ISSN 2721-4532 

Gedung B3&B8, Program Studi Sastra Inggris Fakultas 
Bahasa dan Seni, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Sekaran, 
Gunung Pati, Kota Semarang, Jawa Tengah Indonesia 50229  

E-mail: srisumaryani@mail.unnes.ac.id  

http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1333515478&1&&
http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1576658845&1&&


Sri Sumaryani, Maria Johana Ari Widayanti, & Ruly Indra Darmawan | ELT Forum 12 (3) (2023) 

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INTRODUCTION 

The current challenge of teaching students in the English Literature study program in Indonesia was 

that most of them were not aware of the local, national, and international sociocultural, political, 

and economic issues. Lecturers would face the problem whenever they initiated discussion on the 

issues. This might be related to the lower score of reading literacy of Indonesian students measured 

by OECD in 2018 through the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)(OECD, 2019). 

The required average score was 500 and Indonesia was far below it. The test involved questions that 

emphasized high-order thinking skills. The results suggested that Indonesian pupils had low skills in 

analytical problem-solving.  

According to Katoningsih (2019), one of the reasons for the low skills in reading literacy was 

that most students had low interest in reading. For the students of the English Literature study 

program, reading was a crucial skill and activity. Limited exposure to reading activity would limit 

them from accessing the knowledge since almost all subjects in the study program required intensive 

reading. Literary products as the main source of analysis, thus, needed to be used as a tool to ignite 

the reading skills of the students. A strategy must be applied in the reading process so that the 

students would feel involved and active in the entire reading process. Contextualizing the story that 

they read with reality was the method chosen for this study.  

Literary products could be a powerful resource for readers who want to experience the world 

through the perspectives of people with various backgrounds. To be able to see from the perspectives 

of others, readers need to have background knowledge that would help them explore the interpretive 

meanings comprehensively. It will make students go beyond the literal words on the pages found in 

literary texts. Interpretation involves reasoning skills which include the ability to draw conclusions 

from the text and other knowledge. They can be beliefs; sociocultural, political, and economic 

systems; or literary theories that can help the analysis process (Sosa et al, 2016).  

In order to gain a full comprehension of issues presented in a literary work, readers must have 

a background or contextual knowledge in order to get the individual and social benefits of the 

activity (Williams & Williams, 2023). To read Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, readers need to know 

that women in India are still considered second-class society who constantly receive unfair treatment 

and oppression. In texts that are based on political events, the need for knowledge scaffolding is 

essential. To read Animal Farm by George Orwell, for instance, readers must have political schemata 

which makes them understand that the novel is not merely a beast fable. With ample knowledge, 

readers will be able to draw an interpretation that does not stray too far from the main issue brought 

by the literary product.  

For this study, the researchers chose a short story that contained feminist issues to be 

introduced to the students. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (henceforth IOROW) is a story among a 

collection of short stories with the same title by Daniyal Mueenuddin. The story revolves around the 

life of Husna who works in the household of K. K. Harouni, an aging wealthy landowner. Born in 

an old and respectable family who have long lost their heyday, Husna is longing for the same 

comfortable life she has not experienced. She succeeded in winning K. K. Harouni’s attention and 

won an unshakeable position in the household as a mistress. The situation changed when he died 

and the family members refused to have her in the house. The story is set in Pakistan during the 

1980s when feudal power was facing its waning era. As Indonesia and Pakistan have a high number 

of Muslim populations, this study tried to see how Indonesian students responded to the lives of 

Muslim women in Pakistan through literature. The popular cultural interpretation of Islam suggests 

that patriarchal values are inseparable from Islamic teachings, to a point where it becomes the 

inherent identity of Islamic identity (Alexander & Welzel, 2010). Part of the study asked the readers 

to respond whether the interpretation was true or not as found in the short story.   

Most of the stories in IOROW highlight the mistreatment of Pakistani women by the members 

of society (Tanvir & Amir, 2017). It is estimated that every year, about 80% of Pakistani women 

become victims of domestic violence in the form of honor killings, acid attacks, and marital rape 

(Bhattacharya, 2014). They are prone to violence and oppression because patriarchal values are 

deeply ingrained in the country’s norms and beliefs (Ali et al, 2023). As an author and journalist, 

Mueenuddin presents women from various stages of life and social stratification with their own 

struggles through captivating storytelling.  

Women in the story, in this case represented by Husna, are stereotyped as weak subjects who 

rely on the kindness of men to survive. Women are not trusted and given opportunities to be 

decision-makers in a wider societal context. This is one among various forms of oppression 



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experienced by Pakistani women. However, readers also witness each female character’s survival 

mechanism through unconventional ways which can be seen as a form of strength in the male-

dominated society.  It is true that women still experience various kinds of marginalization 

worldwide. However, by contextualization of the reading process, their experiences must not be seen 

from a homogenous perspective only and the way we empower them must also consider local 

hierarchies and gendered subjectivities (Khurshid & Saba, 2017).  

Referring to the backgrounds mentioned in the previous part, this study aimed to find out 

whether or not a contextualized reading strategy would help the students understand the story 

comprehensively. This aim was a response as well as an endeavor to find a solution to the low 

reading interest and ability among English Literature students in Indonesia.  

Previous studies on Mueenuddin’s works have been conducted by several researchers. Tanvir 

& Amir (2017) have applied a deconstructive approach to one of Mueenuddin’s short stories 

“Saleema”. The findings suggested that the main character Saleema was not as weak and oppressed 

as she was perceived to be. The study has revealed the unreliable binary oppositions that have been 

tried to be established in the story. The second study by Ali et al (2023) attempted to examine the 

construction of gender identity in a short story titled “Saleema” using Critical Discourse Analysis 

(CDA) approach. It revealed that Pakistani women who live in a patriarchal society frequently 

encountered mistreatment and restrictions because their roles were defined by men.  

Mudure (2021) mentioned in her research that IOWOW was significant for contemporary 

world literature because Mueenuddin used his background origins as a Pakistani-American to talk 

back to the world which contributed to shaping his personality. He used it to define his position in a 

world where Islamophobia still remained. Therefore, Islam became an inseparable element in his 

writings. Hai (2014) also highlighted the contemporariness of Mueenuddin’s works by examining 

how the figure of female domestic servants became central rather than marginal. His strategy was 

able to shift the readers’ ways of seeing the subjects and issues portrayed in his works. 

A different approach in examining Mueenuddin’s works was probably done by Sadaf (2014) 

who focused more on Pakistani masculinity caught in between the waning colonial power, the rise 

of corruption, and confusion about identity issues. Referring to all previous studies, none of them 

discussed the works as a possible means to enhance students’ understanding of feminist issues. 

Positioning the works in the pedagogical lens would prove that the works could be interpreted in 

various ways.  

To conduct this study, the researchers employed a contextual approach. Contextualization 

has been defined in numerous ways. As basic skills, it was defined as an instructional approach that 

creates connections between the teaching of language skills and instruction in a particular subject 

area (Perin, 2011). One example is when a reading subject was taught with direct reference to 

current historical or political issues. Many terms have been used to refer to the contextual approach, 

such as contextual teaching and learning, integrative curriculum, and content-area literacy. 

 

METHODS 

Participants  

The participants of the study were 31 students from the English Literature Study Program at 

Universitas Negeri Semarang. The participants were randomly selected from their respective 

populations. They belonged to the same class. They enrolled in a Prose class and all of them were 

from the 3rd semester. Before enrolling in the Prose course, they were required to pass the 

Introduction to Literature course. The subject was compulsory. The participants consisted of 7 male 

students and 24 female students. Their ages varied from 18 to 21 years old. Their English proficiency 

also varied, ranging from intermediate to advanced levels.  

 

Research instruments and data collection techniques  

The whole activity consisted of three stages. The first stage was pre-reading activities. In this stage, 

students were divided into several groups and required to discuss the concept of the patriarchal 

system in general. They needed to compare their initial knowledge regarding the topics to the 

members of their group and summed it up in a presentation that lasted for about 7 minutes. The 

students were free to choose any information that they thought essential to be incorporated into the 

presentation. All the activities were conducted in the first and second weeks. The second stage 

consisted of reading, discussing, and analyzing. The students were divided into several groups 

consisting of three or four students. They were asked to read IOROW. The lecturer gave the students 



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several questions to help them understand the story easier. They discussed and analyzed their 

findings together with the group members. Each group presented the results of the discussion and 

the rest of the groups were invited to give responses. The stage mainly discussed and analyzed 

relevant quotations from the story which also included the discussion of linguistic features. It lasted 

for two weeks. In the last stage, the students were asked to connect the story with real life. They 

worked individually. The results of their work were presented in the form of an essay. The two 

previous stages were used to prepare the students with basic knowledge of the issues they were about 

to analyze.  

The questionnaires were given at the end of the activities to check the responses of the 

students. They were not required to write down their names to ensure the objectivity of their 

answers. The questionnaires consisted of five questions that were related to the three stages the 

students have gone through and had five scales: 1) strongly disagree; 2) disagree; 3) neutral; 4) agree; 

and 5) strongly agree. Besides examining the results of the questionnaires, the researchers also 

observed the students’ responses and activities during meetings to enrich the discussion and point of 

view. The researchers would take notes on several responses from the students that contributed to 

the process of discussion and interpretation. 

 

Data analysis technique  

The data obtained from the questionnaires were presented in a table that contained the number of 

students who responded to the statements with scales. The number would be made into percentage. 

The data obtained from the observation were compared. Even though the data looked varied, they 

contained keywords that could represent the students’ highlighted concerns when responding to a 

certain case. The researchers also checked the essays and analyzed how far the two previous stages 

contributed to formulating the opinions of the students on the feminist issues portrayed in the story 

and in general. The combination of results among the three stages became the basic findings to 

determine whether the treatment given to the students was effective or not to increase their 

understanding level of the feminist issues.  

 

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 

Pre-reading activities 

In the first stage, students were divided into 8 groups. Each group needed to find the definition of 

patriarchy and how it was inserted into cultural or societal norms and values. They also needed to 

find examples of patriarchal values or practices in their surroundings or those practiced worldwide. 

The results were presented and discussed together by the whole class. In the preparation session 

prior to the presentation, the students did not have any difficulty to formulate the definition of the 

term. However, the definitions they presented were mostly statements they found on the internet. 

The time allocation for discussion in each group was varied, but the time was relatively less than 15 

minutes. After the discussion, most groups would rather divide the responsibilities among the 

members of the group. In a group that consisted of 4 students, one student would be in charge of 

summing up the final definition and the rest were looking for examples of patriarchal values and 

practices. 

When the students were asked about the strategy, most of them answered that it was time-

efficient. They could focus on the task they were assigned. If they formulated the final definition 

together, it would take a longer time because they needed to confirm with each member. Some 

students also mentioned how they needed to catch up with other tasks from other subjects. Among 8 

groups involved in the discussion session, there was only one group that formulated the final 

definition together. When asked why they chose to discuss the definition first instead of delegating 

one member to be in charge of it, one member of the group mentioned that he just followed the 

lecturer’s instructions. He also said that it did not waste their time because he felt that he had a 

chance to present and argue the results of his findings in front of his friends. He thought it made him 

more confident in speaking English because he saw that his friends were also struggling.  

Comparing the results of the definitions formulated by all groups, the group who decided to 

have a discussion had a longer and more comprehensive definition as the result. Below is the 

definition of the group:  

 

Patriarchy is a social system and strategy that gives men power to control every aspect of 

societal life while women are excluded from the decision-making process. It is usually 



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internalized in cultural and social norms and values in a very careful and subtle way to a 

certain point where society accepts it naturally without questioning it. 
 

Ideas about the exclusion of women as decision-makers and the subtle internalization of 

patriarchal values have not been mentioned by the other groups. It proved that longer time 

allocation for discussion could result in a more comprehensive understanding of the topic. The time 

allocation should be incorporated with an effective strategy of discussion. As the discussion had a 

further purpose to make the students more aware of the sociocultural, economic, and political 

situations in their surroundings and worldwide, the discussion results suggested that the method was 

effective in initiating the curiosity and activeness of the subjects. Klofstad (2015) mentioned that 

exposure to political discussion during the college years led to a higher level of political participation 

while still in college and years after that. 

In terms of examples of the patriarchal system, most students took circumstances from their 

daily lives or cases and news that happened in Indonesia. Some of the examples were also 

worldwide phenomena, such as gender inequality in the workplace and domestic abuse. Even 

though gender inequality in Indonesia was less than in most Muslim-majority nations, women’s 

economic participation is relatively low in comparison with the country’s development (Cameron, 

2023). With COVID-19, women have been adversely more affected compared to men (Fisseha et al, 

2021). The students might witness closely the phenomena in their surroundings. Relating it to the 

definition, they could be more analytical in seeing inequality cases and did not simplify them as a 

matter of choices.  

The top three cases the students often mentioned were daughters not permitted by their 

families to pursue higher education, the gender pay gap, and female migrant workers whose 

husbands took advantage of their money and cheated. Some of the cases had local characteristics 

while some could be found worldwide. The examples and explanations suggested their 

understanding of the term.  

 

Understanding the story  

The students were reading, discussing, and analyzing the story in the second stage. At this stage, 

they were still working in a group. To help the students, the lecturers provided several questions 

whose answers could help them comprehend the text. These were the questions: 1) what was the 

setting of time and place of the story; 2) why did Husna flirt with K. K. Harouni; and 3) what 

happened at the end of the story. After discussing the answers to the questions, they presented their 

results and compared them with the other groups’ results.  

All groups had relatively similar answers. What needed to be highlighted during the 

presentation was that the answers led the students to a more detailed and comprehensive 

understanding of the situations portrayed in the story. Some students, for instance, were wondering 

why the society allowed the practice of adultery while the society portrayed in the story was 

predominantly Muslim. When the question was directed to the whole class, a student raised his 

hand to answer. The student said that even though the society was mostly Muslim, their daily norms 

and values were highly influenced by non-Islamic traditional norms. Adultery was tolerated because 

the one who did it was the landlord who had power.  The lives of the servants were dependent on 

the kindness of the powerful patriarch, K. K. Harouni. He then further gave statements taken from 

the story which could prove his arguments. 

Related to question number two, most groups answered that Husna was a greedy person 

because she used all means to fulfill her dream. She did not care if the way that she chose might hurt 

or harm others. One student mentioned that by being a mistress of K. K. Harouni, she harmed not 

only the landlord’s entire family who unanimously believed that the landlord’s action tainted the 

family’s dignity, but also the trust and respect of the servants. She went by saying,  

 

Even though Mr. Harouni was known (for) having premarital and extramarital relationships 

with several women, it mostly happened before he separated from his wife and got old. In his 

current position as an old man, he needed to establish himself as a respectable gentleman and 

focus on the afterlife instead of having a relationship with a much younger woman.  

 

Interestingly, another student responded that the audience should also place themselves in the 

position of the landlord who lived far from his family members. He showed the quotations which 



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mentioned how the daughters rarely visited his father. He was mostly accompanied by his friends 

who also rarely came. When people were old, they needed company. Husna was there and she 

needed economic support from the landlord. It was a mutualistic relationship. Therefore, it should 

not be seen as a mistake.  

The response ignited the debate in class. Some students raised their hands and offered their 

perspectives on seeing the case. The discussion went actively and lively. The activity gave them an 

image of the complexity of life in the socioeconomic context. Besides provoking curiosity, more 

meeting time could be spent on higher-order analytic activities rather than listening to the 

presentations by the lecturers (Trudeau, 2005). Active participation in class could also improve oral 

communication skills (Dallimore et al, 2008). Without the discussion forum, the students would not 

be able to practice and sharpen their argumentative speaking skills.  

The students generally stated that the story was relatively easy in terms of vocabulary and 

grammar use. They found difficulties when encountering cultural words like “begum, kurta, and 

dupatta”. As a part of comprehending the story, the students were encouraged by the lecturers to find 

out the meanings of words they were unfamiliar with. When finishing the second stage, the students 

were expected to be able to get an understanding at least of the plot and main topics so that it would 

be easier for them to get the whole context of the story.  

 

Contextualizing the story  

After finishing the second stage, the students were asked to write an essay about IOROW. The essay 

should contain their interpretation of the female character Husna and the relationships between 

women and men in general as portrayed in the story. The lecturers provided several questions that 

could guide them. These were the questions: 1) describe Husna’s characters; 2) do you think Husna 

is the victim of the social system, why?; and 3) how is the relationship between men and women 

portrayed in the background setting where the story is based? After understanding the whole plot of 

the story and background information on patriarchy, the students were expected to be able to give 

their interpretation of the feminist issues portrayed in the story.  

The students mostly mentioned how Husna was a victim of the social and cultural system in 

Pakistan. Some students successfully related Husna’s life to poverty which struck her family. Even 

though her family used to be well respected and rich, their current condition hampered them to be 

considered in a higher societal system. One student said, “The social system does not favor people in the 

lower classes. It makes it difficult for the members of the lower class to choose the path in their life”. The 

students understood that Husna’s choice to be the mistress was her final solution to free herself from 

poverty. 

A student mentioned, “Husna is not attractive physically. In a society where women are seen as 

second-class citizens, they will be mostly taken advantage of by the more dominant groups”. The more 

dominant group here was the men. Husna understood that as a woman, her educated background or 

skill would not take her anywhere. In a society where men were the decision-makers, women were 

expected to follow certain rules set by the society. A female student mentioned the decision to make 

Husna as a mistress was also made by the man. “It was Husna who tried to lure the boss, but it was still 

the boss who finally made decisions whether he wanted to be with Husna or not.” The situation demonstrated 

how men could dominate women, especially those in vulnerable positions. It suggested how social 

power dynamics affected relationships between men and women and determined how their 

relationships were structured in society.  

Several students highlighted Pakistan as a patriarchal society with limited education access 

for women. One student wrote: 

 

The lack of female education negatively impacts employment and the economy. Only a few 

work in the public sector, most of them work in the domestic sector. Parents in Pakistan often 

forbid their daughters from pursuing higher education due to the cultural practice of the bride's 

family providing a dowry to the groom at the time of marriage. When a woman marries a man 

of lower social status, it can be seen as her fulfilling his needs. Husna's parents exert pressure 

on her to get married despite her reluctance, showcasing the continued prevalence of 

matrimony in Pakistan.  

The majority of the students in their essays stated that education played an important part in 

improving the lives of society. Three students gave Malala Yousafzai’s case as an example of how 



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difficult it was for women to get access to education. Husna as a representative of a working-class 

woman was educated but she was not capable of maximizing her potential. Tamim (2013) argued 

that working-class women in Pakistan remained marginalized because they were forced to accept the 

reinforced sense of low self-worth and ability.  

 A female student also suspected that the reason why all of the Harouni daughters chose to 

live far from their father was a representation of the limited freedom these women had. Their 

father’s house was a representation of the old values and norms that were controlling and that they 

wanted to get rid of. For them, leaving the main house meant embracing their freedom. When 

Sarwat, one of the daughters, came home and showed her disagreement and resentment toward her 

father’s mistress, she still had no power to stop it. Her father, or men in general, was the decision-

maker. For Husna, on the other hand, becoming a part of the house made her closer to her dream. 

Two opposite conditions experienced by women from different social classes revealed that the lives 

of women in the country could not be completely free from the shadow of men.  

Interestingly, there were around four students in their essays who mentioned that Husna was 

a brave character. All of these students were female. Even though the norms limited her movement, 

she was not hesitant to use the last possible means to achieve her dream. One student wrote “From 

the religious and social point of view, what Husna did to the Horouni’s family was evil. However, she also had 

dreams that needed to be realized. Everyone must have the right to make her own dreams come true.” Some 

students were aware that the condition faced by women was not easy at all. They could not 

completely blame a woman whose dreams were about to be crushed due to restrictions and stigma 

from society.  

Another female student also said that Husna was educated and within an ideal situation, she 

could get and pursue the better life that she dreamed of. However, society would never give her the 

opportunities because she was not attractive physically and her family was not well enough to be 

included in the higher class. Whatever path Husna chose in her life would show that she was a 

victim of the patriarchal society.  

One student further mentioned that K. K. Harouni should not be seen as a character who 

saved Husna. He was a man who took advantage of the situation. He only saw Husna as a 

companion who took care of him. He did not really value her even though he showered her with 

gifts. He used his power to show his dominance so that Husna had a reason to be obedient and 

follow his sayings. He wrote, “Husna is shown as being the object of the men's authority and possessiveness 

in the story, which raises the possibility that women in this society may be treated like property or things.” 

The researchers also asked the opinions of the students after they finished doing the three 

stages through a questionnaire. The questionnaires consisted of five statements that they needed to 

respond them by choosing one of the answers in the multiple choices. The choices ranged from 

strongly agree to strongly disagree. The statements presented in the questionnaire were whether or 

not: 1) IOROW is an interesting story; 2) reading IOROW makes them learn feminist issues; 3) the 

patriarchal system in Indonesia and Pakistan are same; 4) their knowledge on feminist issues has 

improved; and 5) they have empathy towards women. 

 

Table 1. Results of questionnaires 

Top number is the count of students selecting the 

option. Bottom % is percent of the total students 

selecting the option.  

Strongly 

Disagree 

Disagree Neutral  Agree Strongly 

Agree 

IOROW is an interesting story 3 1 15 10 2 

 10% 3% 48% 32% 6% 

reading IOROW makes you learn feminist issues 2 2 10 16 1 

 6% 6% 32% 52% 3% 

the patriarchal system in Indonesia and Pakistan are 

same 

18 11 2 0 0 

 58% 35% 6% 0% 0% 



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my knowledge on feminist issues has improved 0 0 2 25 4 

 0% 0% 6% 80% 13% 

I have empathy towards women 0 0 9 18 4 

 0% 0% 29% 58% 13% 

 

The results of the questionnaires suggested that the three stages of reading helped them 

comprehend the sociocultural, political, and economic issues brought by IOROW. One student 

mentioned that before the first stage, he actually did not know how to formulate the definition of 

patriarchy. He understood the concept but was unable to articulate it in words. Most of them also 

stated that the story opened their eyes to how to see the condition of women in a patriarchal system. 

A student mentioned that in several areas in Indonesia, girls were not allowed to pursue higher 

education. The story reminded her of some conservative practices in Indonesia applied to women.  

All of the answers suggested that the activities provided the students with authentic reading 

experiences (Zimmerer et al., 2018). They were both academically and emotionally linked to the text 

they were reading. They felt that the reading activities were relevant in reality because the case and 

the actors truly existed. They felt involved when giving their opinions and suggestions.  

When asked about the similarity between the patriarchal system in Indonesia and Pakistan, 

most of them answered that the systems were not the same. Pakistan applied more harsh treatment 

and punishment to women. During her research, one of the students mentioned that she found that 

honor killing and child marriage practices still happened in Pakistan. In Indonesia, the practices 

would be forbidden by laws. The ability to identify cultural differences and practices between the 

two countries suggested that the students implemented the transfer of skills and knowledge from 

different contents and contexts (Voge, 2011).  

The majority of students also mentioned that they have learned to build empathy towards 

women. One male student said that even though the rights and opportunities between men and 

women in Indonesia were equal, there might be some circumstances that favored men over men. 

They needed to be critical and eager to question any kind of practice that they thought was 

suspicious. Sometimes, inequality and oppression were practiced in a very subtle way.  

 

CONCLUSION 

The PISA results in 2018 regarding the low reading literacy skills for Indonesian students needed to 

be considered as an alarm. If there was no real action from the related parties, the situation would 

get worse. At the higher education level, the low skills could already be observed by the low interest 

in reading and the inability of students to relate the contents of text with real-life issues. The students 

of the English Literature study program of Universitas Negeri Semarang were given reading 

activities consisting of three stages with the contextualization approach. The three stages were 

proven to be effective in improving the students’ understanding of feminist issues brought about by 

the story entitled “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders”. The first stage provided the students with 

ample basic knowledge of feminist issues. The second stage was conducted to make sure that the 

students understood the whole story in general. The third stage trained the students to deliver their 

rational arguments and defend it. The students were able to rationalize their arguments by showing 

proof from the story and relating it to real sociocultural, political, and economic situations. The 

treatments lasted longer than the usual reading activity in class. To discuss a short story like IOROW, 

which consisted of more than 20 pages, they needed around five weeks to complete all stages. 

However, if the activities could be routine, the students would get used to it, and the working time 

could be shorter.  

 

FUNDING STATEMENT 

We wish to thank the Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang for the funding 

that we received to accomplish this project in the frame of the program “Dana DIPA FBS 2023” 

under the grant agreement number B/7409/UN37.1.2/TU/2023. 

 

 

 



Sri Sumaryani, Maria Johana Ari Widayanti, & Ruly Indra Darmawan | ELT Forum 12 (3) (2023) 

206 

 

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https://doi.org/10.1080/15512160500261178

