I am back.

Facebook has reactivated my account.

To those of you who have genuinely and constantly supported me through the 50 hours of battle against Facebook on banning me, all I could say is that: You are all Heroes, without you I am nothing and I am humbled by your time and energy to make this happen, and I will always forever be in your debt.

But first, I am going to say thanks to Mas Lovis Ostenrik who has always been there to consult on this matter, Sian – the person who has helped structured my appeal, feminist journalist Mona Eltahawy who stormed twitterland and took everyone’s attention, Hanis Maketab who has written an excellent journalistic piece that succeeded in 10K shares on Asian Correspondent, Tom David, Kate Walton and Jørgen Reitan Sivertsen who have helped me in writing down the open letter to Mark Zuckerberg on Change.org and the wonderful members of Jakarta Feminists (Yenni,Fajar Zakhri, Saran, Catherine Emily and everyone of you) who helped in taking over twitter and Facebook, and also Netizens around the world from.

Congratulations to all of you. You have accomplished something big. Which also inspires discussions and changes to be made. You are a the voice of our generation.

This war has taught us something that it is important for every one of us that free speech is every human’s right. Regarding the article, I was clear enough that it is based on educational and historical purposes and none of it was to promote nudity.

As Indonesians, it’s also important and necessary to remember our culture and heritage. This kind of openness in educating the society is important. People may agree or disagree, both ways this information has reached out to them. It is also the kind of attitude that can inspire people to advance their research in art, history, photography, gender studies, sociology and anthropology. It helps promote tolerance, acceptance and peace within the diverse world we live in.

Regarding the censorship on Facebook, Facebook should also take a deeper look in understanding every single report a person has filed against it. I had almost 3000 shares, imagine 3000 people times the friends who have had seen it (you do the math, I’ll leave you do that) against a few number of people who have reported my account.

Facebook did not send any email that my account was reactivated, I found out about it online through Putri Minagnsari’s tweet.

Moreover Facebook has banned me twice. The first time they reactivated my account, they let me interact for less than 3 hours. Then they banned me again for the second time without further email. I have already guessed that this was automated that kept banning users after a bunch of people who decided to file a report again. It took another 5 hours for the world to keep retweeting and putting this into attention. Then they lifted the ban again around 9 p.m. Indonesian time. But then Facebook decided to suspend my account from posting within 24 hours.

I have made an appeal to Facebook stating that:
“By any circumstances, I have decided to agree that Facebook might not be the safest place to those who are interested in sharing and educating the public of the Culture of Real Indonesian Women.”
So, I, hereby ask Facebook to reactivate my account, and in return I will also take down the album and make it invisible in the public eye.

Yet this is just not my war, it is everyone’s war on freedom of speech and the right to obtain information. And you, who have taken and pour your time and energy deserve to take part in the decision making and the publicity of this album. The publicity of the album will now be moved to http://herewewere.com/women-of-indonesia, an album compiled by Alan Llewellyn.

In the mean time I will also be accepting photos of Women in Indonesian history and think about the safest space we can publish this. I will also reactivate the fanpage  that I once used to published my blog in www.deasafirabasori.com , you can also contact me personally through twitter www.twitter.com/deasb , and my email at dea.basori@gmail.com.

I apologize to the over amount of friend requests, I won’t be able to accept all of it unless we have a significant amount of friends. You can also like my facebook page as I will be sharing news about Feminism, Indonesian Culture and Heritage and Social Activism.

This is a huge step for us, yet we should also be humbled by our victory as we understand that this is just one of the issues when it comes to censorship, moreover the censorship of women’s bodies especially women in history. Nowadays where women are oppressed regarding all aspects, we should take a further step in understanding what gender equality is and giving the same equal amount of public space when it comes to sharing information and educating the public.

In this case, Indonesia has been proven to be one of the countries that values heritage and culture. I encourage that you who embraces history should also be proud. No matter where you came from, there is always part of us that holds that bit of tradition and culture. Be proud of it. Embrace it. Engage in it. Celebrate it. Because it what makes you YOU.

I am humbled and moved by the effort made.
There are no more words that I can say except:

Thank You and keep inspiring.

Sincerely, Dea, the Girl who got banned from Facebook.