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Arab Encouraged To Pay For Sex
With Women In Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's vice president said he
saw
nothing wrong with Arab men paying local women to marry
and then
divorcing them days or hours later, and suggested the practice
--
dismissed by critics as legalized prostitution -- could
boost
tourism.
Jusuf Kalla made the off-the-cuff remarks at a travel industry
seminar on how to attract more Arab visitors to Indonesia.
It was
not clear whether he was joking, though his comments caused
laughter
in the audience.
Kalla said that many Arab tourists currently traveled to
the
hill town of Puncak near Jakarta to enter into short-term
marriage
contracts with Indonesian women.
"We need different kinds of marketing campaigns, more
targeted.
At the moment most Arabs go to Puncak. If they go there
looking for
widows or divorcees, that is not our business, it is not
a problem."
"So what if the man goes home, the lady gets a small
house that
is good isn't it?"
Women activists say the weddings, which are not recognized
by
the state but are blessed by Islamic clerics for a fee,
they are a
form of legalized prostitution and encourage poor families
to sell
their daughters for sex.
Media reports say the practice is common throughout Indonesia,
and that most of the grooms are local men.
Puncak is notorious for prostitution, and signs in Arabic
at
several restaurants and hotels testify to the area's popularity
with
Arab visitors. But it was unclear on what Kalla was basing
his
assertion that Arab men were especially involved in short-term
marriages.
Kalla was not available for comment Thursday, and he does
not
have a spokesman.
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