Sinta Nuriyah Wahid, the wife of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, is suing the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) for slandering women.

The chairman of the FBR, Forum Betawi Rempug, Fadloli El Muhir had said on television, May 1st, that the women who took part in a demonstration against the RUU APP, the anti-pornography and indecency bill, were “evil, wretched and immoral”.

Sinta Nuriyah Wahid

Not taking this lying down the irrepressible Sinta Nuriyah yesterday (1/6/2006) filed a lawsuit at the Jakarta police headquarters. She was accompanied by sixty-four supporters, says indosiar, seven of whom were from the Legal Aid Institute. Firman Gani, chief of police, received her at the station, and said:

I hope the Director of the General Crimes Unit gives more attention to this case.
(Saya harap Direktorat Reserse Kriminal Umum memberi perhatian lebih terhadap kasus ini.)

Her senior lawyer, Adnan Buyung Nasution, said he was ready to defend Sinta because her good name had been besmirched by the FBR.

No group has the right to say insulting things to these women and say that they are immoral.
(Tidak satu kelompok pun yang berhak menyatakan mereka bejat dan tidak bermoral.)

Nasution said and added:

Where do they get the authority to act as if they represent God?
(Dari mana mereka mendapat otoritas seolah-olah mereka mewakili Tuhan?)

Sinta urged police to take tough measures to prevent the group, and others like it such as the Islamic Defenders Front and the Mujahidin Council, from inciting hatred among people in the name of religion or ethnicity.

This is a country built on diversity. We have to respect one another, not judge each other because of our differences.

she said.

Sinta said the comments deeply hurt every woman who took part in the rally, herself included. She said that, if police did not act, people would resort to name-calling whenever they had a disagreement with someone.

According to the Jakarta Post, Fadloli, separately, said he had done nothing wrong.

They (the women) were the ones who started it. They staged their protest without decency by exposing their breasts in public.

He was referring to a lone transvestite at a rally in April, who was wearing revealing clothing. Fellow protesters later apologized for any embarrassment caused by the incident, which they said was unintentional.

Fadloli said the lawsuit, made only a few days after the earthquake in Yogyakarta, only augmented his argument that the women were immoral because they did not show any sympathy for the quake victims.

I will also report those women since they have been accusing us of being anarchists without any evidence.

he is reported to have said.