Our beloved Jakarta governor, Fauzi Bowo, has been making headlines again. Unusually, this time he was not discussing the traffic or flooding, but fashion. Fauzi advised women not to wear short skirts because it could get them raped.
Fauzi has since apologized publicly for his, shall we say, obtuse statement, but still, how on earth could a so-called educated man make such a harsh comment? (And I stress the word man !)
What is it with men and short skirts? Why are women so quick to be blamed when they experience sexual abuse in the streets? So if women all wear baggy clothes and cover their skin from head to toe they will become immune to sexual violence?
Fauzi’s statement was not only cruel but also illogical. If short skirts are what get women raped, then women who don’t wear them won’t get raped?
As a user of public transportation and also a woman, I find that hard to believe. If you ask women who take public transportation, most of them will say they have experienced sexual harassment at least once on the road.
In my youth I went through it quite a few times, and I can tell you it had nothing to do with my skirt. I don’t even have any short skirts: I went to an all-girl catholic school, which meant our skirts were 10 centimeters below the knee. And we wore shirts that were far from body-fitted. But my friends and I still got harassed.
Once, after four of us had boarded a bus and taken our seats in the back, a weird-looking guy sat next to me and proceeded to rub his thigh against mine. Uncomfortable with that, my friends and I moved to a different part of the bus, but that didn’t stop this creep. He sat behind us and started blowing in my friend’s ears. Seriously, that guy was a very, sick man. To escape that awful situation, we left the bus immediately.
In my college years, I learned some hard lessons about how to “survive” on the road. To lay low, I would disguise myself as a man. I wore baggy clothes, oversized T-shirts and hats when I took the bus from my house my university in Depok. If it seems like overkill, realize that you have to do what you have to do to minimize sexual harassment in the street.
It didn’t always work; I still ended up in some uncomfortable situations. But I learned some lessons and developed my tactics: Observe whether the bus is empty or full, try to sit with other women, avoid the window seats. Make sure you bring something sharp, like a hair pin, just in case. Don’t cross the bridge when no one’s there or walk alone in the dark. If you don’t have a choice, make sure your phone is working.
I’m sure that most women (and even men) have their own ways of staying safe in transit. But if a woman wears a short skirt, do you actually believe she means to say, “Hey, please, rape me?”
These crimes can happen to any woman, whether she happens to be wearing baggy clothes, has three kids, or is elderly (this one I’ve unfortunately seen). It’s not because of what we wear, but rather the fault of men who just can’t keep their pants on.
The state has an obligation to protect its citizens. The punishment for sexual offenders should be strict. No matter how small one act might seem, it is always a violation of basic human rights.
It can start from officials’ mindsets. If the governor had said it made him ashamed that a man could hurt a woman, or encouraged women to protect themselves, or even promised to put offenders behind bars for a very long time, wouldn’t that have been better? Wouldn’t that have been more dignified and less insulting to women?
The governor could have just withdrawn his statement and made a sincere apology. But that won’t change how his original statement reflects how narrow-minded people still are when it comes to violence against women, and the idea that it is women themselves who cause it.
It’s not about the skirts. It’s about human rights.
Fidelis E. Satriastanti is a news reporter at the Jakarta Globe
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