Raden Adjeng Kartini was born on 21 April 1879 in Jepara, Central Java, then the Dutch East Indies and now Indonesia, to an aristocratic Javanese family. Her father was the Regency Chief of Jepara, the town she was born and raised in. She attended school until the age of 12, where she studied Dutch, before she was secluded (pingit) at home to prepare her for her marriage. During her pingit, Kartini continued to study and self educate herself, practicing Dutch with a variety of Dutch pen pals and reading books, newspapers, and European magazines, which started her interest in feminist thinking. These letters would eventually be published after her death and offered great insight into her thinking and her struggle for independence from her family and patriarchal expectations. As a result of her reading, she began to advocate to improve the conditions of indigenous Indonesian women and the emancipation of women across the country. She sought to continue her studies first in the Netherlands or in Batavia (now Jakarta) but her plans were thwarted by her father, who opposed additional schooling for her. In her letters, she wrote of her desire to pursue and education and also her views on the social conditions of native Indonesian women. In her letters to her Dutch friends, she was critical of the Javanese cultural tendency to impose obstacles on women’s development and expressed her unhappiness with the cultural traditions that prevented women from study and kept them secluded. When she was 24 years old, she was married to Joyodiningrat, a Regency Chief of Rembang. It was an arranged marriage and Kartini would become the chief’s third wife. Although reluctant about the decision to marry Joyodiningrat, Kartini eventually accepted the proposal, as he understand her aspirations and allowed her to establish a women’s school. The following year in 1904, just days after giving birth to her first child, Kartini died on September 13th at the age of 25. Though she lived for a short time, her legacy continues to impact Indonesia to this day. In 1964, 21 April was declared Kartini day and schools across the country have been named for her.