Indonesia's minister of women's affairs has demanded authorities seek the harshest punishment possible under the law against rapists to deter future attacks.

"I hope for the firmest possible law enforcement against perpetrators of rape in order to create a deterrent effect," Linda Gumelar, the minister for women's empowerment and child protection, said in Jombang, East Java, on Thursday.

Linda also deplored comments by Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo who said women who wore short skirts in public were inviting sexual attack after the pack-rape of an office worker on a public minivan.

"Rape cases have nothing to do with what a woman wears but it is associated with moral decline," she said, adding that she had even heard of a similar attack on a woman who wore "clothes from head to toe."