Why is wearing jeans and riding a moped without a headscarf now a problem for a woman in Banda Aceh, the Indonesiad city devastated by the tsunami of December 2004? RNW reporter Fediya Andina found out on a recent trip to her native country. The province of Aceh introduced strict Sharia law on 1 January this year.
Read her report:
I look at myself in the mirror. A face with a black headscarf and a long dark grey shawl. I don’t recognise the face in the mirror. Someone tells me it goes with my aura. I could happily provide a thousand reasons why I don't feel comfortable. I walk outside and feel as though many eyes are on me.
I remember when I first arrived at the airport in Banda Aceh. I saw quite a few foreigners. The women were not wearing headscarves: Sharia law doesn't apply to them. I am Indonesian, my hair is black, but I live in the Netherlands. Does the law actually apply to me? I feel like a stranger in my own country.
Knee-length dresses
Zulfikar, my driver and guide in Aceh, starts telling me about the city. He points out various buildings, mass graves, restaurants, shops, cars and motorbikes. Banda Aceh is clearly being rebuilt rapidly. I see a lot of women on motorbikes, wearing long trousers, knee-length dresses and headscarves and a helmet. I gulp. It is 37 degrees. The sweat runs down my face and back.
We go to the part of Banda Aceh which was first hit by the 2004 tsunami. The sea has forced the land back. The white beach has disappeared. Courting couples used to come to the beach. Now there are fences all over the place. The Sharia police regularly patrol the area. The strict Islamic law forbids couples in love to even walk side-by-side, especially if they are young. But of course they do it anyway. In the evenings and at night when the police are less active.
Swimming costume
On one part of the beach I see a family swimming in the water fully dressed. Zulfikar tells me that girls and women in Aceh are not allowed to wear swimming costumes. So they enter the water wearing a blouse, long trousers and a headscarf. He tells me that there were an awful lot of people on the beach on the evening before the tsunami. They may have been doing things that were not appropriate. Perhaps that’s why God was angry, he says. I am surprised. Is this what many people in Aceh think? And does the Sharia give any guarantees for the future?
The rebel in me dares me to wear jeans with a scarf just draped around my shoulders and ride a moped through the streets of Banda Aceh. Together with another girl. Lots of people look at us. Some laugh, others stare in astonishment and incomprehension. A little later my mobile phone rings. Zulfikar warns me that the Sharia police are not far behind us. We should stop somewhere quickly and pretend there is nothing going on.
Pick-up truck
We stop at a food stall. I see a pick-up truck drive past. There are three police officers on the back, two are women in uniform. They are wearing flared trousers. They look at us, stop 50 metres down the road and start watching us. A few minutes later they drive away. Pity. I would have liked to have had a discussion with them.
The next day, I meet a number of former resistance fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). I ask about the Sharia laws. Their answer is crystal clear. The law was not made by the people of Aceh, but by the established political parties from Jakarta. The last parliament, which was not elected by the people of Aceh, wanted to make a good impression on Jakarta. During the conflict, conservative and fundamental Islam was not an issue. There was just one goal: independence from Indonesia. The Sharia was mainly supported by the Indonesian Islamic Party, the PKS.
Governor
To this very day, Irwandi Yusuf, governor of Aceh and former GAM leader, has refused to sign the Sharia law. He wants the newly elected Aceh parliament to amend it. It was supposed to be the first task of the new parliament. Eighty percent of the MPs are from the Aceh Party, which came from the GAM resistance movement.
On the street a group of youths demonstrates against the government, they look like students. They are demanding economic growth, new jobs, better education, health care for everyone and the fair distribution of wealth. At a food stall, I see a group of young girls talking busily. They look fashionable, wearing skinny jeans and headscarves. For them, life goes on, with or without the Sharia.
Photo: Banda Aceh - RNW
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People should be able to dress the way they see fit. It is called freedom. However the rules in Aceh are unequally against women. The excuse here is religion. However the religion in question is open for many interpretations. If confronted with this the argument becomes that women should be protected. Protected against who? Against sex hungry men who cannot behave themselves? The police dominated by men rules invariably against women in social conflicts, they say the women dress skimpy, they don't say the men misbehaved!!! But who cares not everyone has the same amount of brains, so this shit will continue as long people are not educated.
as if the place hasn't suffered enough. This is possibly the most depressing thing I've ever read. Enforcing bizarre and outdated laws on a beleagured city. And to the person who says dressing modestly prevents prying males, dressing in muslim clothes is just a green flag to perverts of the muslim variety who find raping or molesting infidels to be outside of their particular fishing area. For some reason, they find "underdressed" women more assertive than someone who dresses in a more vulnerable manner.
Put yourself into the mind of a rapist.. who is more likely to fight back? Someone who wears what she likes, or somebody who puts on a burka because she is afraid of men.
Hiram, is always anti-other visitors comments, whatever they might be, like, sometimes he blows the bugle of morality and at other times criticizes modesty! Don't you have your own view, Hiram?
No, anonymous, I do not. I am a computer my friend. My hard-drive, like yours and everybody elses, is nothing but information that has been programmed into me by nature over a very long period of time. My hard-drive is a sum total of my life and maybe that it is why you stated what you did because you too are a sum total of your life's experience. Don't you see my friend that one person sees dressing modest as reason for rising crime against women is because the person's personal hard-drive has been programmed; whereas, my hard-drive tells me that a style of dress might have something to do with some crime against women but not always or otherwise one might see cities as previously mentioned with high crime rates because women do wear "skimpy" clothing. { We are all programmed and we all have "views"! Avoid those viruses and worms in the world my friend. They have a tendency to make some computers think they have a view while others do not! They start believing they are the Global computers and all others are not.
"The rising incidence of crime against women is due to skimpy dresses.".......If this were the case, then one would expect a rise in the crime rates in cities such as Amsterdam Rotterdam, Koln, Paris, and many cities in the world but does not. It is is very possible that there are many cases of crime against women who wear "skimpy" clothing but there are many crimes against women who do not wear "skimpy" clothing. { As to "predating" males committing crimes against females: Women commit crimes against other women and there "predating" females who are just as bad. Women go out and look for women, too. They are just as capable of lusting as men. { In this world, one should be conscious of his or her's safety at all times. If dressing modest works, then one might want to dress modest but in this world you will have a difficult time finding two people to agree on what is or isn't modest. Is that the reason why Islam has dress code laws for women? Islam doesn't trust people in deciding what is or isn't modest!
I think women should dress modestly according to the law of the land, and attract less attention from the predating males. I simply do not understand women, who wear less, and feel empowered. We should dress for comfort and safety.The rising incidence of crime against women is due to skimpy dresses.
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