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| Southeast Asia |
| Religious cops on frontline |
| 2009-12-27 |
| [Straits Times] SHE wears a helmet and drives her scooter slowly through the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province, but Yuli is still stopped by the sharia police. Her crime: wearing tight jeans and a blouse deemed 'un-Islamic'. The 20-year-old lowers her eyes and doesn't argue with the khaki-clad male officers who summon her to the side of the road. 'I promise to buy a more Muslim outfit,' she says, showing enough contrition for the police to wave her on her way. In one hour, 18 women are pulled over because the guardians of morality decide their slacks are too tight or their shirts reveal too much of their feminine curves. Only three men receive the same treatment, for wearing shorts. 'We have to respect sharia (Islamic) law, which has been adopted by the provincial government and which stipulates that women can only show their faces and their hands,' sharia police commander Hali Marzuki told AFP. Perched at the end of Sumatra island about 1,000 kilometres northwest of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Aceh is one of the most conservative regions in the mainly Muslim archipelago. Most Muslims in the country of 234 million people are modern and moderate, and Indonesia's constitution recognises five official religions including Buddhism and Christianity. But Aceh has special autonomy, and one of the ways it has defined itself as different from the rest of the country is through the implementation of sharia law and the advent of the religious police. The force has more than 1,500 officers, including 60 women, but unlike their fearsome counterparts in Saudi Arabia the local sharia police do not seem to cause too much concern among citizens. Officers are relatively cheerful, they carry no weapons and they almost always let wrongdoers off with a warning. 'Punishment is not the objective of the law. We must convince and explain,' says Iskander, the sharia police chief in Banda Aceh, who goes by only one name. He has the power to order floggings but has found no need to do so since he was promoted to his current position a year ago. Less than a dozen people have been publicly caned since 2005, for drinking alcohol, gambling or having illicit sexual relations. |
| Posted by:Fred |