Aerobics in Jakarta
Muslim women and men doing aerobics. Despite being Muslims, they all look surprisingly "normal" here. They wear sweatpants and standard workout garb. You should see some of the girls with chadors on at the shopping mall. They wear tight jeans, high heels and sport trendy purses with plenty of make-up. All the while the carry the latest mobile phones and the most uppity of them have coffee at Starbucks....provocative indeed and hardly the image of backwardness put forward in images of muslim women in the Middle East. Muslim women here (like Nining) seem enthusiastic to embrace what is new. :)
The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th century; the islands were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia declared its independence after Japan's surrender, but it required four years of intermittent negotiations, recurring hos... ... read more 
