Above: In 2014, Dateline had a rare glimpse into life under sharia law in Indonesia.
This week, following a month of international criticism, boycotts and celebrity protests, the Sultan of Brunei backtracked on enforcing radical interpretations of Sharia Law, including the death penalty for homosexual sex. In the regions surrounding Brunei, however, particularly in the Indonesian province of Aceh, Sharia Law continues to curb the freedom of millions of people.
While stoning practices were removed from Aceh’s Islamic criminal law in 2009, adultery, premarital sex, homosexual sex, gambling and the consumption of alcohol can still result in canings, fines and imprisonment.
Every day, Sharia modesty police patrol the province on the lookout for ‘immoral behaviour’. While much of the police’s efforts focus on finding unmarried, heterosexual couples alone together, it is minority groups - particularly LGBTI+ people - who are most at risk.
A religious officer canes an Acehnese woman for spending time in close proximity with a man who is not her husband. Source: AFP
How the 2004 Tsunami triggered Sharia Law in Aceh
Following decades of political unrest, Indonesia’s westernmost province drew global attention after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami decimated its capital, Banda Aceh. The rebuild, fuelled significantly by international aid into the region, changed the course of Aceh’s long running fight for independence.
As a result of subsequent peace negotiations between local and national governments, Aceh achieved autonomy in almost all areas of governance including its legal system. Ultra conservative laws were quickly implemented and now form the bedrock of social life in the region.
How strict are the Sharia police?
On the surface, Aceh appears like any other province in Sumatra. Daily life continues in markets and agricultural projects across the province, the region's traditional sources of employment. Aceh’s government has recently been investing in tourism campaigns, and it is a common sight to see international visitors walking the streets of Banda Aceh, or touring through nearby rainforests.
Each evening, the Islamic Call to Prayer breaks through the tropical heat and echoes through the laneways of Aceh’s cities and ‘gampong’ (smaller towns) requesting people come and worship. Afterwards, in the twilight, families meet outside mosques to talk and eat food unique to the province, just as they have for generations.
However, these idyllic scenes belie a dangerous presence in Aceh – modesty police.
Key among the targeted groups of the Sharia modesty patrols is the transgender community. Speaking to Dateline, Sherley, a leader from the ‘waria’ (transgender) community, relayed that transgender people are finding it increasingly difficult to hold jobs in Aceh due to alienation. The situation is so dire that she herself has had to accommodate ‘more and more waria’ who arrive in Aceh’s cities from gampong throughout the province.
This distressing situation is confirmed by Andreas Harsono, Human Rights Watch’s Indonesia researcher. “Transgender women [have been forced] to move out of Aceh. Many of them move to Medan but some also go to Jakarta,” he told Dateline. “Religious, gender and sexual minorities suffer tremendously under the Sharia regime in post-tsunami Aceh.”
What will the second term of President Widodo mean for Aceh’s Sharia laws?
National elections last month ultimately ushered in a second term for President Joko Widodo.
While the results from the provinces are still yet to be fully published, it appears that voters in Aceh were split between Widodo and his opponent, former army general Prabowo Subianto, who received some of his strongest support from Aceh in the 2014 election. Widodo, touted as an everyman alternative to Prabowo and the establishment that has long governed Indonesian politics, is still seen by many as socially liberal, but has been courting Islamic groups in recent times.
This may be a cause for concern for minorities in Aceh and elsewhere across Indonesia. Widodo selected Ma’ruf Amin, the former ‘rais aam syuriah’ (supreme leader) of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Islamic organisation, as his running mate in the recent election. Amin, who is also the former chair of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), was a key prosecution witness in the 2017 conviction of Ahok, a former Christian governor of Jakarta, on the crime of blasphemy. In his role as Chairman of the Islamic Ulema Council, Amin also previously called for the banning of ‘deviant’ LGBT activities across the country.
Harsono puts it simply: ‘civil liberties are disappearing in Aceh’. For Sherley, the influence of Islamic law has a very real impact as waria continue to lose their jobs and find it difficult to find work throughout the province. It remains to be seen if this will continue into President Widodo’s second term in office.
