Soenting Melajoe
Soenting Melajoe (EYD: ) was a Malay language newspaper published in Padang, Sumatra's Westkust Regency, Dutch East Indies from 1912 to 1921. Its full title was Soenting Melajoe: soerat chabar perempoean di Alam Minang Kabau (Malay : Newspaper for women in the Minangkabau land). It was edited by Ruhana Kuddus, an early women's education activist, and was the first newspaper for women published in West Sumatra. History The newspaper was launched on July 10, 1912, by Mahyuddin Datuk Sutan Maharadja, a Minangkabau intellectual and editor of the newspaper Oetoesan Melajoe who thought that there should be a reformist newspaper aimed at a female audience in Padang. At that point there had only been a handful of Indies newspapers edited by Indonesians and aimed at a female audience, such as Lim Titie Nio's launched in 1906, or Tirto Adhi Soerjo's Poetri Hindia, launched in 1908; both papers were from Buitenzorg, Java. Maharadja had already heard about the educational activities of Ruhana Kuddus, who ran a successful and modern school for girls in Koto Gadang (near Bukittinggi), and when she corresponded with him he agreed to create the newspaper with her as the editor-in-chief. (According to some accounts, it was Maharadja who