True love or chauvinism?

MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara (JP): Local government officials in East Lombok have a come up with a new policy designed to keep local women faithful: deny them contraception.

Women are not allowed to ask for birth control devices while their husbands are working overseas. Officials say that the men here fear that their wives might "misuse" their intrauterine devices, or IUDs, while they are working in places like Malaysia.

"It's meant as a precaution so lonely housewives won't be tempted to do negative things while their husbands are away," a spokesman for the East lombok regency, Lalu Zakaria, told Antara yesterday.

The rule also applies to local women who have been divorced by their husbands, who then move to Malaysia. The women are nastily called jamal, an Indonesian acronym for janda Malaysia or "Malaysian widows."

An independent demographic organization estimates that up to 25,000 people from East Lombok work in Malaysia, mostly in the plantation and construction projects, legally or otherwise.

Zakaria said the policy was issued after many husbands openly complained that their wives were taking contraceptives while they were away.

To make the policy effective, the local government makes it a rule that no housewife may go for contraception services without their husbands' written consent.

Local officials add that many of the wives request to have the devices removed to show their faithfulness. (pan)