Fatmawati

Fatmawati (5 February 1923 – 14 May 1980) is a National Hero of Indonesia (Indonesian: Pahlawan Nasional Indonesia). As the first Indonesian First Lady, She was the third wife of Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, and the mother of Indonesia's first female president, Megawati Sukarnoputri. She constructed the first flag flown by Indonesia.

Life

Fatmawati was born on 5 February 1923 in Bengkulu to Hasan Din and Chadijah. One of her ancestors was a princess of a Minangkabau kingdom, Sultanate of Inderapura. When she met Sukarno she was a teenager and he was married to a 53-year-old woman named Inggit. Unsurprisingly, Sukarno's wife was unwilling to release her husband but, after two years, Inggit agreed to a divorce. Sukarno rationalised the need for his new wife by stating his desire to have a child to carry on his name.

In 1943 Fatmawati became the third wife of Sukarno and the following year gave birth to his first child, a son. Sukarno named his child Guntur meaning thunder. In 1945 she was his wife when Indonesia declared independence. The flag of the new country was sewn by Fatmawati, and the same flag was re-flown every year until 1967. She was not his first wife, as he had married several times before. However all the previous wives had been divorced in line with State law. Fatmawati was therefore his only wife at that time.