That afternoon on 4 July 2015, I was at Leo Mulyono's home. Pipiet (Leo's daughter) talked to me, while holding her mobile phone: ‘There is a female ex-prisoner who would like to meet you. Her name is Muhayati.’

She then gave her phone to me, so that I could speak directly with Muhayati. ‘Mbak, I was accused of being Gerwani and arrested, but was not tortured. Are you willing to interview me?’

We met at the home of another ex-political prisoner, Christina Sumarmiyati (Bu Mamiek), the next day.

I was born on 6 December 1941, two days before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. People said, perhaps because of that, I was so dark, unlike my fair mother and sisters. I am the first child and have six younger siblings: three boys and three girls.

After graduating from high school, I entered medical school at Universitas Gadjah Mada and joined the CGMI [Consentrasi Gerakan Mahasiswa Indonesia, or the Unified Movement of Indonesian Students], an organisation linked to the PKI. I loved this organisation because they were against cheating in examinations and rejected the practice of bullying in orientation programs. At that time, many senior students bullied new students during orientation programs. The bullying was so bad that it sometimes involved serious physical and psychological abuse.

Suddenly, at the end of October 1965, I was dismissed from the university for no reason. An announcement was posted on the bulletin board at my campus, stating that I was no longer a student there. My student number was 3616K. I still remember it, even now.

My father was a member of parliament for the PKI in Yogya at that time. On 17 November 1965, a bunch of soldiers came to our house and searched for weapons. After ransacking our house they did not find anything, but they took bapak [father], and told me that he would only be interviewed. But why did he not come home? Then, on 18 November, I went to the office of the local military, but they said that bapak had been taken to the Wirogunan prison. I immediately went to Wirogunan, but the clerk told me that I could not visit my father. So I just left underwear and toiletries for him with the clerk.