Religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali said on Wednesday that skirts “above the knee” should be defined as pornographic, amid a wider debate about freedom of expression and religion in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
“This country keeps taking steps backward,” Masruchah, deputy head of the national commission on violence against women, told AFP.
“As a democratic nation, the government must ensure that everybody has the right to express themselves freely, as guaranteed by the constitution,” said Masruchah, who goes by one name.
“This country must stop criminalising women’s bodies and blaming women’s clothing for inviting sexual assault.”
The commission is officially independent but gets funding from the government.
In 2008, Indonesia passed an anti-pornography law that criminalises all works and bodily movements that could be deemed obscene and capable of violating public morality, including art, dancing, music and poetry.
The law was met with widespread criticism for being draconian and discriminatory against women.