Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – Some 1,500 people representing various groups staged a rally Monday at the Tangerang administration office on Jl. Satria, to show support for a bylaw that regards the performance of sex work as a criminal offense.

The groups, however, urged the municipal council to revise an article of the bylaw, which makes unaccompanied women vulnerable to police harassment or arrest. The bylaw, which targets female but not male sex workers, came into effect late last year.

The massive rally was initiated by the Tangerang chapter of the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI), the Benda Community Alliance, the Betawi Forum for Children's Communication, the Forum for Independent Women, Tangerang Mother's Majelis Ta'lim, Tangerang Government Watch and the Confederation of Independent Labor Unions (GSBI).

"Looking objectively at the real situation – at how sex workers have taken to every corner of our city – for our own safety, we strongly support the implementation of the bylaw," PGRI chairman H. Hasan said.

However, he said Article 4 (1) of the law contained definitions so vague they could be used to target women who went out by themselves at night.

The article prohibits any woman whose attitude and behavior gives the impression she could be a sex worker from being on the street, on a playing field, in a hotel or dormitory, in a residential area or coffee shop, at an amusement park, on a street corner or at any other public place at night.

Meanwhile, councillor Abdul Harif, who was seen amid the crowd at the rally, said the language of the bylaw made a woman who was alone in public after dusk a sex worker.

"The article must be revised. It has misled some public order officers, who made a mistake in picking up women on the side of the road, although they were not soliciting." In fact, the bylaw is written in an ambiguous way, which permits officers to apprehend women who are loitering on the street.

Ngadinah, coordinator of the GSBI said she too had urged the council to revise the bylaw. "The bylaw gives a poor definition of a prostitute. It's wrong to judge someone based on suspicion," she said.

She said the bylaw gave certain individuals the license to carry out subjective policing. "Before the bylaw was endorsed, it would have been wise for the administration and the council to research its possible impacts. For example, for female workers, the administration could have suggested to industrial firms that they provide transportation to pick them up and take them home," she said.