Surabaya (Indonesia), Sep 26 (DPA) Millions of Muslims across Indonesia flocked to traditional markets and department stores earlier this month to snap up special foods, gifts and clothing ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
But in the east Java city of Surabaya, hundreds of people, mostly men, were flocking to the city’s famous Dolly red-light district to get in one final liaison before the holy month temporarily shut it down.
Dolly is one of the largest red-light districts in Southeast Asia with more than 2,000 sex workers in hundreds of brothels in the heart of Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city. It is named after the district’s first madam, a Dutchwoman from Indonesia’s colonial period, and its prominence rose with the growth of Surabaya’s port, one of the country’s largest.
But by local law, Dolly closes up shop during Ramadan, and in the run-up to the shutdown, business was so frantic that people were still talking about it two weeks later.
“The week before Ramadan is the craziest time of the year because many customers come to enjoy sin for the last time,” said a giggling Mira Dewi, 22, a sex worker at the House of Twin Queens brothel.
Ramadan marks the time when the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet Mohammed. During the holy month, Muslims abstain from food, drink and sex from dawn to dusk. The daily fast is broken by prayers and festive meals.
Muslims are encouraged to become more spiritual during this period by praying more, reciting the Quran and giving alms to the poor – while at the same time abstaining from sex out of wedlock.
So naturally, the days leading up to Ramadan “are the best time to get as many customers as we can get, so we can save money for the coming month”, Mira Dewi said in a careful tone. “We lose an entire month’s income during Ramadan.
“Sure, we are disappointed about it because there’s not much else we can do for living, but we can’t protest,” Mira Dewi said.
The economic shutdown is a tough blow to the working girls, most of who are from poor rural villages around Java, and also affects local pedicab drivers, restaurants, shop owners and many others who make a living in and around the red-light district.
For Mira Dewi, it presents another problem: continuing to hide her profession from her family. “I send money home to my mother, so I don’t know what to tell her,” she said.
At least she and other workers in the Dolly district can count on a surge in business in the days after Ramadan ends.
Prostitution is illegal in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world with about 190 million faithful, but Dolly for many years has been the exception to the rule. Islamic organisations, big and small, consistently oppose prostitution, especially during Ramadan, so brothel owners agreed to the one-month shutdown.
“It’s a regulation from Surabaya’s mayor to close down prostitution and other amusement areas such as pubs and bars during Ramadan,” said Soeharjo, a provincial spokesman. “We have to respect the holy month.
“Dolly is a legal prostitution area based on the mayor’s decree,” he said. “The place pays huge taxes to us, and although the closing during Ramadan is indeed a loss, we have to see it based on a moral aspect.”
Indonesia has a secular government and society and has large minority religious groups, including Christians, Buddhist and Hindus, but some conservative Muslim-based political parties and fundamentalist Islamic groups have at times called for legislation based on Islamic law, or “sharia”, in an attempt to impose their version of morality on the country.
The country in recent years has witnessed forced closures and attacks on nightclubs by mobs linking themselves to Islamic organisations, such as the Islamic Defenders Front.
Dolly has never experienced such attacks in East Java, which is the base of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organization in the country, which promotes mainstream Islam.
Although the vast majority of Surabaya residents support closing Dolly for Ramadan, some openly expressed their disappointment.
“I really think it’s ridiculous and a true form of government hypocrisy,” said Otto Nasir, 45, who works for an insurance company. “Prostitution is a sin whether it’s during Ramadan or not. If they want to close it, they should close it for good.”