The rise of social media in the past decade has allowed people to form relationships via social networking services聽such as Facebook regardless of their聽background.
Ilaria, for instance, a young聽Italian woman who was previously living in Italy, was determined to meet Dzulfikar, a young man living in Batang regency, Central Java, who she met on the internet.
The two began communicating via Facebook before reportedly falling in love and agreeing to marry.
On April 18, Ilaria arrived in Batang and聽directly headed to Tragung village, Kandeman district, Batang regency. She聽said her purpose of coming to Indonesia was to meet Dzulfikar. The two had agreed to聽marry,聽tribunnews.com聽reported.
Ilaria said she conveyed her plan to marry Dzulfikar to her parents in Italy and that they gave her consent to do so.
鈥淔or two years, I saved money I got from working in a restaurant in Italy just to come to Indonesia,鈥� said Ilaria. Her arrival in Batang quickly drew public attention, including from police authorities who聽immediately dispatched personnel to check on the presence of the聽foreigner in the Batang village.
Dzulfikar鈥檚 neighbors reportedly notified the police of Ilaria鈥檚 presence.
Accompanied by three personnel, Batang Police deputy chief First Insp. Agus Windarto traveled to聽Tragung village to assess the situation. 鈥淲e questioned her to determine聽what her purpose was of coming to Indonesia,鈥� said Agus./rga
SCREENGRAB from The Jakarta Post