F

/span>Following the recent spike in rape cases in the city, the Jakarta Administration took action on Sunday by cracking down on public minivans, which it considers dangerous for female passengers.

Officers from the Jakarta Transportation Agency apprehended minivans with tinted windows, which can prevent viewing in from outside.

At Pulogadung bus terminal, officers warned drivers of such minivans and peeled off dark plastic coatings from the vehicles’ windows.

At Lebak Bulus bus station, officers measured the visibility of windows on public minivans.

Head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency, Udar Pristono, said that officers had levied fines on drivers of minivans with visibility levels below 20 percent.

Pristono said that the operation was also aimed at keeping unregistered drivers off the street. “We will ask for their driver’s licenses, license plate documents, as well as their personal IDs. We will also check the road-worthiness of their vehicles,” Pristono said.

The agency based its operation against tinted windows on a 1976 decree issued by the then transportation minister.

A number of drivers said that tinted windows were for the convenience of passengers.

“We put them on simply because we don’t want passengers to feel the heat from the outside,” said one of the drivers, Situmeang.

Meanwhile, a group of women who called themselves Women Against Rape staged a rally in the city’s thoroughfares, calling for an end to trying to shift the blame for rape onto female victims.

Following the SlutWalk movement overseas, women participating in the rally donned tight outfits and miniskirts in an apparent move to take a swipe against Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, who said on Friday that women on public transportation vehicles should not dress in miniskirts as it could easily
arouse men.

Fauzi has since apologized for the statement.

A spokesperson for the group, Dhyta Caturani, said that the rally was inspired by the Toronto SlutWalk, which was staged to protest a police officer’s remarks saying that women were partially to blame for rape cases by dressing like “sluts”.

“Rape has nothing to do with the way women dress. Rape can happen to any woman, whether she is a toddler or a grandmother,” she added.

Dhyta also said that Fauzi’s statement showed his lack of awareness about actual conditions in the city, and called on city officials to stop blaming female victims for a string of rape cases in the city.

A victim of sexual abuse, who was identified as Helga, insisted that rape had nothing to do with how women dressed.

“I was abused when I was five years old by someone who could be considered a religious figure, so rape has nothing to do with the way you dress,” she said.

Last week, a woman in South Jakarta, identified only as R.S., helped police arrest the driver of a public minivan who, along with three of his friends, had allegedly raped her two weeks before. R.S., 27, was raped by the four men inside an M24 minivan plying the Srengseng-Kebon Jeruk route, on Sept. 1. The rapists also stole her cell phones before dumping her on a quiet street.