Contd..
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[...]Mistress relationships are not the only way in which sex workers living in the Riau Islands enter into long-term cohabiting arrangements with foreign men. Although legal marriages are less common than cohabitation, they offer a means for sex workers to leave the sex industry altogether if they choose to. One of our informants, Ani, met her husband Ah Huat in 1999.
Ah Huat is a 57 year old Singaporean Chinese widower who paid S$2,000 to Ani’s Madam to release her debt with the brothel. Ani is originally from a transmigrant family in Lampung, who was sold into prostitution by a friend who promised her legitimate work in Malaysia. The debt owed to the brothel owner consisted of the costs incurred in her purchase, and other expenses for example food and healthcare, incurred while working in the brothel. After paying-off the debt, Ah Huat brought Ani to Singapore to meet his grown-up children. They were eventually married in Tanjung Balai Karimun after Ah Huat converted from Buddhism to Islam, allowing him to contract a legal marriage under Indonesian law. At first the local authorities in Karimun were unwilling to marry them for fear that as a foreigner Ah Huat would renege and sue them.
This attitude partly reflects a dominant view held by Riau Islanders that Singaporean men are interested in having casual sex with local women rather than in forming legitimate relationships. The religious or customary rites that some men undertake are thus considered to be ‘marriages of convenience’ rather than committed relationships. The local marriage authorities in Tanjung Balai may have feared that Ani’s husband actually intended to enter into one of these short-term arrangements without realising that an authorised marriage was in fact legally binding. The couple finally managed to marry after the Singaporean authorities issued another letter confirming that Ah Huat was free to marry.The couple have since bought a two-bedroom house in Tanjung Balai where Ani lives with her child from her previous marriage. [...]
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[...]Mistress relationships are not the only way in which sex workers living in the Riau Islands enter into long-term cohabiting arrangements with foreign men. Although legal marriages are less common than cohabitation, they offer a means for sex workers to leave the sex industry altogether if they choose to. One of our informants, Ani, met her husband Ah Huat in 1999.
Ah Huat is a 57 year old Singaporean Chinese widower who paid S$2,000 to Ani’s Madam to release her debt with the brothel. Ani is originally from a transmigrant family in Lampung, who was sold into prostitution by a friend who promised her legitimate work in Malaysia. The debt owed to the brothel owner consisted of the costs incurred in her purchase, and other expenses for example food and healthcare, incurred while working in the brothel. After paying-off the debt, Ah Huat brought Ani to Singapore to meet his grown-up children. They were eventually married in Tanjung Balai Karimun after Ah Huat converted from Buddhism to Islam, allowing him to contract a legal marriage under Indonesian law. At first the local authorities in Karimun were unwilling to marry them for fear that as a foreigner Ah Huat would renege and sue them.
This attitude partly reflects a dominant view held by Riau Islanders that Singaporean men are interested in having casual sex with local women rather than in forming legitimate relationships. The religious or customary rites that some men undertake are thus considered to be ‘marriages of convenience’ rather than committed relationships. The local marriage authorities in Tanjung Balai may have feared that Ani’s husband actually intended to enter into one of these short-term arrangements without realising that an authorised marriage was in fact legally binding. The couple finally managed to marry after the Singaporean authorities issued another letter confirming that Ah Huat was free to marry.The couple have since bought a two-bedroom house in Tanjung Balai where Ani lives with her child from her previous marriage. [...]
