Guess What? Khofifah Indar Parawansa

Guess What? Khofifah Indar Parawansa

A woman is usually highly conscious about age. How would you react if someone told you that you look older than your age?

Khofifah Indar Parawansa, the State Minister for Women's Empowerment/Chairperson of the National Family Planning Board, could hardly believed her ears when her husband told her she looked 10 years older than her actual 35 years.

"But I think he could be right because since I assumed my job in the Cabinet, I have had to toil late into the night and go home early in the morning," she said when visiting a cosmetic factory in Jakarta recently.

The Surabaya-born Khofifah said being a cabinet minister was so stressful that she has only "between two and three hours" a day to sleep and there is no time to sit back and relax.

"Maybe you want to suggest that I take part in a facial care program or something, but the problem is I don't have the slightest idea what it is all about," the demure Khofifah told an amused group of the factory's executives and women employees.

The minister also expressed her dismay over the way women workers in Indonesia are treated. They are denied their basic rights, such as menstrual leave and the lack of protection for women on the night shift.

"Employers should know that employees should be treated as a company's asset and if workers are fit, their productivity will improve accordingly." (Antara)