Crawling Jakarta traffic helped stymie a taxi driver's escape after he allegedly raped a 28-year-old woman, The Jakarta Globe reports.
The Indonesian woman had been kidnapped, raped, and robbed by the driver and three other men two weeks earlier. Frustrated by the police's failure to make any progress in catching her attackers, she returned to the scene of the crime and waited for the taxi driver to return. According to The Jakarta Globe, when she spotted her suspected attacker drive past, she called to police officers to arrest him, and stalled city traffic prevented him from making a getaway.
However, the woman's capture of her alleged rapist was not the end of the saga. The governor of Jakarta's reaction to the incident provoked a major outcry in the capital of the world's most populous Muslim country. Fauzi Bowo reportedly advised women to avoid being targeted by dressing conservatively. According to The Jakarta Globe, he said, "Wear sensible clothes, don't wear 'inviting' clothes." While The Jakarta Post reported that the governor later apologized for the remarks, women's rights activists were outraged.
In a protest mirroring those that have swept the cities around the world since a Toronto policeman told law students to prevent rape by "avoid[ing] dressing like sluts," women took to Jakarta's central roundabout to denounce the official's remarks. Reuters reports that both women and children turned out wearing "colorful miniskirts and tight leggings." Many carried signs, including one that read, "Don't tell us how to dress, tell them not to rape."
See photos of the protests below:
