I came across a cool little film on Netflix about Raden Ajeng Kartini, who is commonly described as a princess of Java. She lived at the end of the 19th century and into the very early 20th century when Indonesia was under Dutch colonial rule. She was exceptional in that she managed to get an education up to her 12th birthday and learned to read and write Dutch. Women of her social rank were permanently sequestered from the time of menarche until their wedding days, generally to men who had been selected for them and whom they did not even meet until the wedding.
Kartini managed to break some of the rules, and her correspondence with Dutch women of the era opened her eyes to different living conditions for women and the importance of women's education. She was also an opponent of polygamy, which was much practiced among the upper classes at that time. She received much opposition among the men of her social class to educating any women for any reason at all, but she managed to get a number of schools started and today is deeply revered in Indonesia. Her birthday, April 21, is a national holiday. Tragically she died, presumably of post-partum complications, several days after the birth of her first child.
Anyway, the film was really cool and I think told her story well. I loved the interiors of the palace where she lived and the details of the traditional clothing she and everyone else in the film wore. The film is in Indonesian and Flemish, with a little bit of Arabic thrown in, but has English subtitles. I really enjoyed it and recommend it highly. Anyway, a new princess for us.
And here's a link to the trailer to the film, which was made in 2017. Tartini: Princess of Java
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_SQKqteJAw