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The women’s empowerment minister has chafed at the recent launch of the Obedient Wives Club’s Jakarta chapter, calling the controversial group’s latest move a “setback for Indonesia.”

Linda Gumelar said she disagreed with the club’s aim to teach women to be submissive and to keep their husbands happy in bed could help cure social ills like prostitution and divorce.

“This is a huge setback for both women and men because asking wives to be whores is really not the right thing to do,” Linda said on Friday.

“If men think that their wives’ job is only to be whores for them, why don’t they just marry whores? How come they only think about sex? Marriage is about commitment and responsibility, it’s so much more than just sex,” she said.

The club was founded by the conservative Islamic group Global Ikhwan in Malaysia, and is believed to have branches in Jordan, Thailand and Singapore.

The Jakarta branch was launched last week in a ceremony attended by 50 women and their husbands. Local membership has since swelled to 300 members, according to reports.

However, the state minister said there was nothing she could do about the group because the country guaranteed freedom of expression.

“Indonesia is a democratic country and they [Obedient Wives Club members] have the right to express their opinions,” Linda said. “We have to respect their choice, as long as they do not harm others.”

In a secular state, Linda said her only recourse was to challenge such teachings by encouraging wives to seek alternative viewpoints. “I hope women can open their minds to the fact that they are more than just whores for their husbands,” she said.

The club first made headlines early this month when Rohaya Mohamad, a 46-year-old doctor and the vice president of the group’s Malaysian chapter, was quoted in the media as saying that “a good wife should a whore in bed.”

Gina Puspita, head of the OBC’s Jakarta chapter, has previously said the club would offer its members a package of teaching materials, including giving them a headstart on pleasing their men.

Gina said she gave up a career in aircraft engineering for a mission to preach Islam and help young women build happy marriages through good sex.

“Wives must obey the husbands in all aspect of life, such as serving food and drink, giving calm and support for the husband, as well as in sex relations,” said Pusipita, who shares a spouse with three other women.

The group behind the club was the same that established a branch of the Polygamy Club in Indonesia in 2009, which Linda had also opposed.

Polygamy is allowed in Islam and the West Sumatra chapter of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) recently said that the teachings of the OBC did not violate Shariah law.

“From the Islamic perspective, it is a wife’s obligation to obey her husband,” Gusrizal Gazahar, the deputy chairman of West Sumatra’s MUI, had said in Padang.

“We can’t blame the club because so far, they haven’t taught anything which is a violation to Islamic teaching, including polygamy,” he said.

 

Additional reporting by Reuters, AP & Antara