Woman Catches Her Rapist In Traffic Jam, Helps Inspire Indonesia's Slut Walk

Slutwalks started after a Toronto cop suggested women could avoid rape by not dressing like sluts. They went way beyond Toronto, but it appears that the women of Jakarta had a more local example for their miniskirted march.

Recently, after reports that a 27-year-old woman had been gang-raped in a taxi van, Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo declared that women should “wear sensible clothes, don’t wear ‘inviting’ clothes. You can imagine, if [a woman] wears short skirt and sits next to the driver, it could be ‘inviting.'” He said of women on motorbike taxis, “If you… wear short pants or a miniskirt, do not sit like a man, just side saddle. If you side saddle, there will be no problem.”

According to Reuters, fifty women came out Sunday to protest his remarks:

Women carried placards saying “Don’t tell us how to dress, tell them not to rape,” and “My body is not porn, instead it’s your dirty mind.”
“Public officials should remain silent rather than making discriminatory statements against women. They are supposed to be sensitive and it is their job to find real solution to violence against women,” said Tunggal Prawestu, a spokeswoman for the event organizers.

Obviously, the issues around sexual violence and clothing are different when raised in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, where an Islamic group singles out women who dress “inappropriately” for attack.

Incredibly, the survivor of the gang rape didn’t wait for the authorities for justice: According to The Jakarta Globe, she became “angry after police failed to report any progress,” and returned to the scene of the crime, scanning the drivers until she found the one who kidnapped and raped her. That’s when she started screaming for the police to arrest him. He’s since confessed and been charged.

According to The Globe, “The driver was not able to escape because he was stuck in traffic.”

Woman Catches Her Rapist In A Jakarta Traffic Jam [Jakarta Globe]
Don’t Blame Us For Rape, Say Miniskirted Jakarta Women [Reuters]