Is there?
Leader praises 'legalised prostitution'
ETHAN MCNERN
INDONESIA'S vice-president has said he sees nothing wrong in Arab men paying local women to marry, then divorcing them days or hours later, and suggested the practice - dismissed by critics as legalised 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.
Kalla said many Arab tourists travelled 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," he said.
"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 recognised by the state but are blessed by Islamic clerics for a fee, are legalised prostitution and encourage poor families to sell their daughters for sex.
Reports say the practice is common throughout Indonesia, and most grooms are local men.
Puncak is notorious for prostitution and signs in Arabic testify to its popularity with Arab visitors. But it was unclear why Mr Kalla believed Arabs went there for short-term marriages.
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