Banda Aceh: In what claims to be the only woman-run cafe in the capital of Indonesia’s most conservative province, owner Qurrata Ayuni says she and her baristas provide an alternative to rowdy, smoke-filled male haunts.
The 28-year-old opened Morning Mama last year to create a space that caters to women in Banda Aceh, known as the city of 1,001 coffee shops.
“I thought why not open a place that is comfortable for women?” she said.
While the province has long been known as the site of the world’s deadliest tsunami and a decades-long separatist insurgency, Aceh’s draw for visitors is often the coffee.
The traditional “sanger” latte, mixed with condensed milk, is a popular staple.
Aceh’s strong connection to coffee started hundreds of years ago with Dutch colonial rulers. Now, its farmers cultivate world-renowned beans in lush highlands.
Aceh still catches attention for its ultraconservative values, including by-laws that require Muslim women to wear hijabs.
While women are not banned from working in the only region in Muslim-majority Indonesia to impose Islamic law, running a coffee shop is seen as a man’s job.
“It’s extremely difficult for women in Aceh to pursue education or a career, facing not only legal restrictions but also social bullying,” said Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch.
Despite widespread criticism, public whipping remains a common punishment for a range of offenses in the province, including gambling, alcohol consumption and relations outside marriage.
Independent career paths are mostly viewed as out of reach for Aceh’s young women, but Qurrata was undeterred.
’Time for change’
Qurrata, who owns her cafe without a business partner, saw a demand for a space for women to work or meet friends.
She and her team of baristas pour fresh coffee to mostly hijab-wearing customers, with children’s books and menstruation pads on sale nearby.
“There’s no cigarette smoke, it’s not noisy, it’s really cosy,” she said, adding that some men also have coffees at her shop.
“It’s a statement that women can own businesses, make decisions and lead,” she said.
“Now is the time for change.”
The entrepreneur says women are stepping up, pointing to at least 1,000 applying for a barista job.
“I want to offer them the chance to change the course of their lives,” she said.
Caca, a 23-year-old barista, said it was a “really cool job” rare in Aceh.
The cafe’s regulars hail Morning Mama as a spot where women can be themselves.
“I feel more connection if I ask something with a woman barista,” said 21-year-old student Meulu Alina. “I don’t feel any nervousness. It’s more like talking with your sister.”
Helping others
Before starting her business, Qurrata overcame the loss of her parents at the age of eight in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 200,000 people.
Her village near Banda Aceh was completely destroyed, but she survived and was raised by her aunt and uncle.
Qurrata said she wants to channel her grief into helping other women.
“It’s a platform to help others find their own resilience, much like I did,” she said.
Photography jobs allowed her to build savings and confidence, taking a leap into business after her uncle encouraged her and helped financially.
Other women were still “afraid to start,” she said, for fear men will say bad things.
“People here tend to believe that women should stay at home,” she said.
But “the older generation understands that times have changed.”
Owner of Aceh’s popular Solong coffee shop, Hajji Nawawi, said he would not employ women but locals had accepted them making coffee elsewhere, calling it “normal” as values “from outside” Aceh had entered the province.
Qurrata employs five women alongside two men.
Revenue fluctuates, but Qurrata says her ultimate aim is to inspire other women.
“Women are capable of so much more than we’re often given credit for. We can be leaders, creators, and innovators,” she said.
“So don’t just sit back. Don’t be afraid.”

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter US-led threats in comments reported Monday that were his first direct criticism toward Washington since Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election.
At a conference with army officials on Friday, Kim condemned the United States for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea and solidifying three-way military cooperation involving Japan, which he portrayed as an “Asian NATO” that was escalating tensions and instability in the region.
Kim also criticized the United States over its support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion. He insisted that Washington and its Western allies were using Ukraine as their “shock troops” to wage a war against Moscow and expand the scope of US military influence, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
Kim has prioritized his country’s ties to Russia in recent months, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and displaying a united front in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.
He has used Russia’s war on Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate the development of his nuclear-armed military, which now has various nuclear-capable systems targeting South Korea and intercontinental ballistic missiles that can potentially reach the US mainland.
Kim has yet to directly acknowledge that he has been providing military equipment and troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine and the KCNA’s report didn’t mention whether Kim made any comments toward Trump, whose election win has yet to be reported in the North’s state media.
Kim met Trump three times in 2018 and 2019 in Trump’s first presidency, but their diplomacy quickly collapsed over disagreements in exchanging the release of US-led sanctions and North Korean steps to wind down its nuclear and missile program. North Korea has since suspended any meaningful talks with Washington and Seoul as Kim ramped up his testing activity and military demonstrations in the face of what he portrayed as “gangster-like US threats.” There’s concern in Seoul that Kim in exchange for his military support of Russia would receive Russian technology in return to further develop his arsenal.
Trump’s election win has touched off speculation about a resumption of a summit-driven diplomacy with Kim, which was described by critics as a “bromance.” But some experts say a quick return to 2018 is highly unlikely, as too much has changed about the regional security situation and broader geopolitics since then.
While the North Korean nuclear problem was relatively an independent issue during Trump’s first term, it is now connected with broader challenges created by Russia’s war on Ukraine and further complicated by weakened sanctions enforcement against Pyongyang, Hwang Ildo, a professor at South Korea’s National Diplomatic Academy, wrote in a study last week.
North Korea’s nuclear and missile program is now much more advanced, which would increase Kim’s perception of his bargaining powers. Kim’s efforts to boost North Korea’s presence in a united front against Washington could also gain strength if Trump spikes tariffs and rekindles a trade war with China, the North’s main ally and economic lifeline, Hwang said.
Amid the stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations with Washington, Kim has been dialing up pressure on South Korea, abandoning his country’s long-standing goal of inter-Korean reconciliation and verbally threatening to attack the South with nukes if provoked.
Kim has also engaged in psychological and electronic warfare against South Korea, such as flying thousands of balloons to drop trash in the South and disrupting GPS signals from border areas near the South’s biggest airport.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea again flew trash-laden balloons toward the South early Monday and issued a statement warning the North “not to test our military’s patience any further.” The North has launched about 7,000 balloons toward the South since May, causing property damage but so far no injuries. On at least two occasions, trash carried by North Korea’s balloons fell on Seoul’s presidential compound, raising concerns about the vulnerability of key sites.