control and sexuality

IndonesiaAct also strengthened the standing of the Islamic courts in relation to the civil courts byeliminating a rule dating from the nineteenth century which had required that decisionsof Islamic courts must be ratified by a civil court to be enforceable” (Cammack 1997: 143).The increasing tendency to adopt certain interpretations of Islam as the law of the land isthe context in which to analyse recently introduced laws and by-laws related to zina. Themost drastic law passed at the national level is Law 44/2008 on Pornography (Undang-Undang Pornografi), which was pushed through Parliament on 30 October 2008 by rightwingMuslim political parties. This law greatly expanded the use of certain interpretationsof Islam beyond just the religious courts; these interpretations were now spread to theentire legal system, including the District Courts and the Constitutional Court, and tosociety in general. For example, on 10 March 2010, the Bandung District Court used thislaw to sentence four female dancers, their dance co-ordinator and the manager of thecafé where they were dancing to two and a half months imprisonment and a significantmonetary fine. Furthermore, the law invites members of the public to assist in enforcement– an invitation that human rights activists fear would give carte blanche to the vigilantegroups who already commit human rights violations in the name of religion. Nevertheless,on 25 March 2010, the Constitutional Court rejected an appeal against the law, which waslaunched by some secular parties, ethnic minorities and artists who were concerned aboutwhat this law portends. Instead, the Constitutional Court upheld the Pornography Law aspart of the law of the land, to be enforced by the entire legal system.Prior to the passing of the Pornography Law as a national law, a number of by-laws wereenacted by various local governments based on reductionist and politically motivatedinterpretations of Islam. The National Commission on Violence against Women (KomnasPerempuan) reported: since 2001, 254 local by-laws have been passed; 154 of these lawsare based on such interpretations and 63 discriminate against women explicitly. Forexample, a number of regencies (kabupaten) and municipalities, including Tasikmalaya,Tangerang and Bekasi in West Java, have outlawed prostitution on the grounds that it isa form of zina. This has allowed the police in these districts to arrest any woman on thestreets on suspicion of prostitution, especially if she is out at night. Such cases have alreadyoccurred. Most recently, the Pamekasan regency administration is planning to propose aby-law that would impose a curfew on all women after 11pm (The Jakarta Post: 2010).The proliferation of ‘reductionist’ interpretations in the legal system is most advanced in theAceh Province, which – supposedly to decrease the threat of secession from Indonesia − hasbeen granted special autonomy by the Indonesian government. As such, religious courtsin the province have acquired a much wider jurisdiction than religious courts elsewherein the country. The approach adopted in Aceh was to achieve an eventual convergenceof state law and religious law. The Arabic term qanun (law, regulation) is used to refer tothe local by-laws passed there. Thus, Qanun 10/2002 on Islamic Shari’a Justice (Article 49)provides that the jurisdiction of the religious court (Mahkamah Syar’iyah) is to includeahwal al-syakhshiyyah (personal matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance), but57