Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country. In September 2009, the Aceh provincial government, which is the only to follow the strict Sharia, introduced a law that punished adultery to stoning by death.
It also didn’t allow men to wear shorts and women to wear tight trousers and jeans, as those items were deemed offending. Some women objected, saying skirts would be impractical when riding motorcycles or scooters.
Suaidi Yahya, the mayor of Lhokseumawe, a city in the Aceh province, has found a solution to that problem: according to BBC News, he has ordered female motorbike passengers not to…straddle behind male drivers in order to protect people’s “morals and behaviors”’; instead, they should sit side-saddle.
“When you see a woman straddle, she looks like a man. But if she sits side-saddle, she looks like a woman”, said the mayor, adding that passengers who sat side-saddle rarely fell off.
The local government will evaluate the issue in a month, after which it could turn into a by-law. “Once it has become a by-law, automatically there will be sanctions”, commented Yahya when questioned on the issue.
The law, which only applies to Muslims, has drawn criticism from Muslim activists like Jakarta-based Ulil Abshar Abdalla.
“How to ride a motorcycle is not regulated in Sharia”, he commented on his Twitter account. “There is no mention of it in the Koran or Hadiths. In a democratic country, what is claimed to be Sharia must be assessed by the public’s common sense if the government aims to turn the regulation into law.”
By Andrew Tsaousis
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