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)