Booming sex trade deeply rooted in Jepara

Booming sex trade deeply rooted in Jepara

Jepara has always been associated with prosperous woodcarving
businesses, with no indication of red-light districts, glittering
pubs or nightclubs.

However, this northernmost regency in Central Java has gained
another reputation -- as a center for high-class prostitutes and
commercial sex workers.

Koentjoro, a psychologist from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada
University, has, since 1987, put his time and energy into
carrying out comprehensive studies and advocacy on the social
phenomenon in Pati and Jepara regencies.

In 2001, he set up a nonprofit organization, Kusuma Bangsa, to
register sex clusters in these two regencies. The organization is
now actively registering houses and villages that become
prostitution centers to find the precise sex cluster mapping.

According to Koentjoro's study, prostitution in Jepara has
dated from 1870. At that time, Jepara was a plantation area where
the Dutch colonial administration carried out a cultuurstelsel
(forced planting) policy on local owners. The policy resulted in
a flood of migrants, which later encouraged prostitution.

Koentjoro said prostitution had long been embedded in this
community for more than 132 years; therefore, it would be hard to
eliminate easily this deeply rooted tradition. Moreover, the
community did not seem to really be paying serious attention to
the phenomenon.

In his opinion, poverty was not the sole reason why women
plunged themselves into the world of commercial sex. The major
underlying reason, he thought, was the booming trend toward
materialism and consumerism, especially among the younger
generation.

Giving an example, Koentjoro said that a person, for instance,
could only afford to buy inexpensive and unbranded linting
(rolled) cigarettes, but if he wanted to be seen as a "cool" guy,
he should buy more expensive, branded clove cigarettes, like Dji
Sam Soe. "He will do anything to get Dji Sam Soe, even if he has
to steal them," Koentjoro explained.

Similarly, he also found that despite the presence of many
Muslim clerics and Islamic boarding schools in almost every
village in Jepara, prostitution was still prolific.

For this, he saw a close relationship between several factors,
including morality and socioeconomic issues. "It (prostitution in
Jepara) is a multidimensional social problem," Koentjoro said.

Local people, he said, saw prostitution as the villages'
economic breadwinner. Most commercial migrant sex workers donated
part of their income to various development programs, as well as
social activities. Koentjoro said sex workers still thought about
sin and guilt.

"To reduce their feelings of guilt, they become rather
generous," Koentjoro said. "To achieve a spiritual balance, the
sex workers never forget their daily obligatory prayers. Many of
them have also performed the annual haj pilgrimage to Mecca in
Saudi Arabia."

Koentjoro said he once met a sex worker and asked her why she
kept on praying while at the same time getting involved in
illicit sex that was against her religious teachings.

"I have done something sinful. If I didn't pray and donate
part of my income, I would feel even more sinful," a sex worker
replied, as quoted by Koentjoro.

Koentjoro also said that genetic reasons might be one of the
causes.

Historically, Jepara, one of Central Java's most prolific
coastal areas, was known as an ancient harbor where people
traveling around the world anchored their ships in the harbor for
various trading purposes. At that time, people from China,
Portugal, the Netherlands and Middle East countries visited
Jepara, and some even lived there, marrying local girls and
producing beautiful, mix-race children.

At present, Koentjoro is afraid the now rich and prosperous
sex workers are suffering from financial debt. He indicated a
close relationship between the girls and their pimps. To buy
houses or other consumer goods, the girls quite often borrowed
money from their pimps.

"The pimps give them a lot of money, so as to attract other
girls into the profession," he said. In the end there would be no
winner -- if no action were taken -- as more women might end up
as sex workers and Jepara might become notorious as a
prostitution center.

-- Singgir Kartana