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Indonesian City Want Schoolgirls Dressed Modestly
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The dress code will not be enforced until the renovation of 221 schools in the city.
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CAIRO,
March 1, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – An Indonesian city will impose a
dress code for school girls to be dressed modestly when they go to the
classes as part of a wider conservative policy cracking down on vice
and immorality, an Indonesian daily reported on Wednesday, March 1.
"In
the near future, all female elementary to high school students will no
longer be allowed to wear skirts that show their knees and
thighs," Tangerang mayor Wahidin Halim was quoted as saying by
the Jakarta Post.
"If
the municipality is sticking to the akhlakul kharimah (morality)
vision, then society must also be akhlakul kharimah," he said.
The
dress code will not be enforced until the renovation of 221 schools in
the city is over, the Post said, adding that President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono was scheduled to inaugurate the schools next month.
Wahidin
reiterated that his position had everything to with fighting vice and
preserving the moral values of society and was not influenced by
religion.
Friday
Prayers
Tangerang
municipality plans further to prohibit street vendors from selling
food outside mosques during Friday prayers.
"The
presence of street vendors at mosques is seen as a public order
disturbance. Therefore, I need the support of all layers of society to
issue the ban," Wahidin said.
Earlier
in the month Wahidin vowed zero-tolerance for violators of bylaws
prohibiting the sale of alcohols and prostitution.
Tangerang,
an industrial town located 20 kilometers west of Jakarta, is the
second largest urban center in the Jabotabek region after the capital
Jakarta.
It
has an estimated population of 3.2 million, according to 2005
statistics.
Indonesia
is the most populous Muslim state where Muslims make up 80% percent of
the 220 million population.
Breaking
an official silence, the Indonesian government recently vocalized
opposition to the planned debut of a local edition of the raunchy
magazine Playboy, admitting that its legal hands remain tied.
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