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When Harum Anjarsari’s husband finally got through to her phone, he did not hear her, but instead, rescue workers who said they pulled the device from the debris of one of two ill-fated trains that collided outside the Indonesian capital.
Only a day later was Harum, 30, confirmed to be among the 16 people, all women, killed in a mangled carriage reserved for the use of women to avoid sexual harassment in crowded trains.
“She was clearly the economic backbone of the family,” said her brother Aldyansah, 25, describing the life of the mother of two children, aged three and nine, who worked as a cosmetics salesperson in an upscale mall in Jakarta.
“She was a great help to the family and was a really hardworking person,” Aldyansah told Reuters, as Harum’s husband was too distraught to speak.
The family were gathered at a police forensic unit where victims’ families took custody of relatives’ bodies, while others wept and some still waited for news of loved ones caught in the tragedy that injured 91, also mostly women.
Hundreds of Thousands of Women Ride the Commuter Line
Harum was one of the hundreds of thousands of women who ride each day on the commuter line linking the world’s most populous city with satellite cities to its east and west.
The busiest of Jakarta’s modes of public transport, it carries a daily average of more than 1.1 million people, the train operator says.
The crush of commuters during rush hours brought a feeling of suffocation that could make some women cry, said Nur Aisyah, 31, who works at an office building in central Jakarta and travels every day to Bekasi, the site of Monday’s collision.
