In Sumatra, Knee-ophobia Rules! No Knees is GOOD Knees!

 Jolly Hockey-Sticks in Jambi?

Another delightful report in yesterday’s Jakarta Post, from Jambi, up in Sumatra, where the hatred of knees we have recorded here before has been formalised by the Provincial Government. It has ‘has decided to ban female students from wearing short skirts that reach above the knee, Governor Hasan Basri Agus said…’

 

 Hasan the Kneeophobe

…Hasan said that while short skirts were not comfortable to look at, long skirts were. ‘

Huh? Short skirts are, probably, comfortable to wear in this tropical climate. I say probably because I’ve never worn one, though my Mum put me in a kilt for a photo-op when I was a tiny wee boy. Certainly the ladies I know here seem perfectly at ease in minis,  and I always feel very comfortable when looking at them.

In fact, you readers deserve to see some Indonesian ladies in short skirts, and last night I captured a few who were on the late night Trans TV programme KKN. It’s on between the evening movies on that channel, and is usualy much more pleasing than the films, which are always re-runs, often for the fourth or fifth time. These ladies are named Jian and Angel.

Please let me know if you, like Governor Hasan, are made to feel ‘uncomfortable’ by seeing them. 

Right, back to Back to Hasan the Kneeophobe.

‘The policy, he said, was to maintain and protect decent values…

Separately, provincial education agency head Idham Kholid said that the policy would be applied to all female students of junior and senior high schools across Jambi.

 Idham the Kneeophobe

“We encourage them to wear long skirts down to the ankle,” he said.

Aha! So calves and shins are haram now too? And no doubt elbows and forearms soon to follow?  Well, you can inspect Jian’s and Angel’s elbows etc., too, none of which seem to me to be terribly repulsive.

It looks like Hasan and Idham are riding a wave of popular support – not!

Although the JP report says that ‘the policy received a warm welcome from parents, who believed that it would help prevent their daughters from crimes and other acts of juvenile delinquency,’ it only found one person, not actually identifed as a parent, to speak up for the kneeophobic policy (and BTW, in this country, parents still tend to dominate kids much more than Western mums and dads – can’t the parents decree what daughters wear – every school-girl here has to wear school uniform, after all. Mum can just adjust the hemline to what she thinks appropriate)

“Short skirts are often accidentally opened, inviting others to commit crimes, especially on public transport,” said Marniati, a local resident.

Really? I travel on public transport several times each day, and have yet to see any short skirts being either accidentally or deliberately opened, and I assure you I’d have noticed!

Delinquency? Inviting us to commit crimes? What a puerile mentality some people have.