TheJakartaPost
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Sexual repression and misogynistic moral police
Giving power to the state to police private lives, to police intimacy, in a society that is ridden with sexism and patriarchy will only end up creating more suffering for women.
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Giving power to the state to police private lives, to police intimacy, in a society that is ridden with sexism and patriarchy will only end up creating more suffering for women. (Shutterstock/-)
A
man and a woman were sitting at a table, chatting intimately over a meal. They were boyfriend and girlfriend sharing an affectionate moment. Suddenly a screaming mob invaded the house. The two were forcibly dragged outside.
This violent, invading mob was led, shockingly, by a “public servant”, somebody certified by the state to serve the people: the neighborhood head, or ketua RT.
Why did the RT head and his mob invade the private house of a resident, without a warrant or any other document, and then forcibly drag the couple outside? They were suspected of engaging in extramarital sex.
Does the RT head, or anybody else for that matter, have the right to invade a person’s home based on “suspicions” about their private lives? The RT head’s position is regulated by law, and he has no such right. Neither does any other member of society.
Isn’t this incident that took place in Cikupa in Tangerang, Banten last November, based merely on “suspicions” about private lives, a form of indecency itself? The indecency of this behavior was then manifested in what the mob did next. Their suspicions were not confirmed when they found the couple eating, so they used threats to get the couple to “confess”.
The indecency of unfounded suspicion led to the invasion of privacy, and then to threats and a forced confession. But the nastiness didn’t stop there: The mob then stripped the couple nearly naked before the mob. The disrobed couple was filmed and then posted on social media. Who is it that has the indecent mind?
And what if you or I were subject to such “suspicions”? Or our children? Or our boyfriend or girlfriend? And who are these people who think they can read what is in people’s hearts?
