Devil in woman's clothes?<\/p>\n
Given the uproar she has caused despite her unremarkable
\ndancing talents and rather homely appearance, one could be
\nforgiven for thinking she was the reincarnation of Mata Hari. But
\nunlike the Dutch-born woman who exchanged a rather pitiful life
\nin the Dutch East Indies -- the Indonesia of today -- for a life
\nof glamor and luxury in Europe, Inul Daratista does not aspire to
\nbe a courtesan or spy. The only passion she has ever shown since
\nshe was in junior high school was for singing dangdut -- a local
\nmusical genre with strong Indian influences.<\/p>\n
Inul, whose real name is Ainur Rokhimah, was born into a
\nsimple family in the village of Gempol, near Pasuruan, East Java.
\nIt was here that she began her professional singing career and
\ngradually developed the \"drilling\" style of hip movements for
\nwhich she is presently famous -- or notorious, depending on one's
\nproclivities.<\/p>\n
In any case, from the paltry sum of Rp 10,000 per show in
\nthose early days, her rate gradually rose as she moved from
\nvillages to towns, to cities and finally to Jakarta, the
\ncountry's magnet for Indonesians seeking to make it big. With
\nfame and fortune, however, comes controversy.<\/p>\n
While the number of her fans runs into the hundreds of
\nthousands, possibly the millions, across the country, others have
\npublicly deplored her sensual onstage hip rotations in the
\nstrongest possible terms. Rhoma Irama, who is not only one of the
\nmost senior and accomplished dangdut musicians -- many
\nIndonesians refer to him as the King of Dangdut -- but a
\nrespected Muslim cleric as well, said Inul's gyrations \"corrupt
\nthe nation and encourage rape\".<\/p>\n
When Inul recently paid her respects to King Rhoma at his
\nhome, he reportedly called her movements \"pornographic\" and
\nstrongly reprimanded her for \"throwing dangdut music in the mud,
\ntearing apart the nation's social fabric and encouraging illicit
\nsex and rape\".<\/p>\n
He also forbade her to sing any of his compositions as well as
\nthose of members of the Association of Malay Music Artists, which
\nhe chairs, although this latter ban was later denied by Rhoma.<\/p>\n
Rhoma's stance on Inul's \"drilling\" was, predictably, shared
\nby clerics of the Indonesian Ulemas Council and several other
\nMuslim groups. Significantly, however, former president
\nAbdurrahman Wahid, who is the former chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama,
\nIndonesia's largest Muslim organization, defended Inul's right to
\nfreedom of expression, \"as long as she stays within the law\",
\nadding that the courts were the only institution in the country
\nthat had the authority to decide what she could or could not do
\n-- a view that is shared by many prominent individuals and no
\nless than 92 human rights and civil liberty organizations across
\nthe country.<\/p>\n
As far as the public is concerned, a recent poll by Tempo
\nmagazine found that by far the majority of Indonesians defend
\nInul's right to gyrate onstage, even though almost 60 percent of
\nrespondents considered the movements \"erotic\". More than 78
\npercent of respondents were against banning Inul from performing
\nin public, and 55 percent saw Rhoma's tirade against Inul as
\n\"overreacting\" and motivated by the envy of an aging star for a
\nnewcomer who has stolen the limelight.<\/p>\n
In the end, as far as the public is concerned, it seems that
\nwhat Inul's present saga amounts to is the oppression of the weak
\nand powerless, as represented by Inul Daratista, by the strong
\nand powerful, as embodied by Rhoma Irama and company. In more
\nscholarly terminology, maybe it amounts to the suppression of
\nfreedom of expression, or in feminist terminology maybe it is
\ngender oppression in a male-dominated society. Whatever the case,
\nit seems that Indonesians are still a long way from coming to
\ngrips with the prerequisites for justice and equality that
\ndemocracy brings.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/devil-in-womans-clothes-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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