Nurul urges women to enter politics

JAKARTA: Actor-cum-politician Nurul Arifin says misperceptions among Indonesian women makes them reluctant to enter politics.

Nurul, who recently joined Golkar, the political bandwagon of former dictator Soeharto, said most women thought politics was the domain of men and was evil.

"Politics is not evil. It is the politicians that commit evil," Nurul said in a discussion at the House of Representatives (DPR) on Wednesday.

She called on women to enter the fray to improve discourse on issues impacting on women, such as infant mortality and maternal deaths, and unemployment.

Also speaking at the discussion were legislator Ida Fauziyah of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and women's rights activists Ulfa Hermanto and Tunggal Pramesti.

They all agreed that women must be encouraged to enter politics to create a better political condition. -- JP