And if men aren’t moved to rape by the sight of a woman in jeans, it’s because they’re used to it. But the prospect of getting used to it doesn’t appeal to Ramli Mansur. More on this story: “Aceh’s religious police crack down on tight jeans,” by Tom Allard in the Sydney Morning Herald, May 27 (thanks to Twostellas):
”LET me ask you a question,” says the regent of West Aceh, Ramli Mansur, leaning back in his chair in his spacious office. ”What do you think when you see a woman’s round shapes?”
”Rather nice, I suppose,” I reply. ”But it wouldn’t make me feel like raping anyone.”
”Aah, but that’s because you are used to it!”
Mr Ramli’s dismissive response was hardly surprising. The former member of Aceh’s independence movement, school teacher and traditional Islamic healer is on a mission to implement perhaps the most austere form of sharia seen in Indonesia, and his first concern is the appearance of his district’s 85,000-odd women.
Starting today, he will begin distributing 20,000 long skirts, a campaign to stop women wearing trousers. While almost all women in Aceh wear the jilbab, or headscarf, many follow the Indonesian fashion for tight jeans, even if they are worn modestly under a tunic.
”Obviously, there is a problem with sexy dressing,” Mr Ramli explains. ”We see that rapes take place in big cities where free access is allowed between different sexes. Here the economy is small and we don’t want it to be like that.”…