Indonesia: ‘Suspected Lesbians’ Detained | Human Rights Watch

As of this posting I am not aware of any change is status concerning this incident.  It highlights well, that we have a long way to go in the fight for equality on the world stage where the ramifications are much greater. Following the story is a discussion of Aceh's "Special Status agreement" and the direct influence of Sharia on the laws in the province.  Why I choose to include this narrative despite the date.

Indonesian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release two women arrested on suspicion of being lesbians in Aceh province, Human Rights Watch said today. The arrests under Islamic bylaw are contrary to the rights to nondiscrimination and fundamental freedoms under Indonesia’s constitution and international human rights law. 

On September 28, 2015, the Wilayatul Hisbah, or Sharia police, arrested the two women identified as AS, age 18, and N, age 19, when the police saw the pair hugging in a public place in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital. A police official told reporters that they “suspected the women were lesbians.”

“The arrest of two women in Aceh for everyday behavior is an outrageous abuse of police power that should be considered a threat to all Indonesians,” said Graeme Reid, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights program director at Human Rights Watch. “The Indonesian government needs to press Aceh to repeal its discriminatory new by-laws.”
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Aceh’s criminal code, which went into effect in September 2014, prohibits lesbianism and sodomy. These offenses do not exist in the Indonesian national criminal code. The Acehnese by-laws extend Sharia, or Islamic law, to non-Muslims, and the criminal code permits punishments of 100 lashes and 100 months in prison for consensual same-sex sex acts.
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Aceh’s parliament drafted the Principles of the Islamic By-law, while the province’s official Islamic Affairs Office drafted the Islamic criminal code. These by-laws apply not only to Aceh’s predominantly Muslim population, but to about 90,000 non-Muslim residents, most of them Christians and Buddhists, as well as domestic and foreign visitors to the province.

Indonesia: ‘Suspected Lesbians’ Detained | Human Rights Watch

Indonesia's Aceh to close churches after pressure from Muslim groups | Reuters

Authorities in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province said on Sunday several Christian churches would be shut down this week, just days after a mob burned down a church, killing one person and injuring several others.

Tensions have been high among the ethnically and religiously diverse population of Aceh, raising the risk of further religious violence in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim population.

The vast majority of Indonesians practise a moderate form of Islam and Aceh is the only province to adhere to Islamic Sharia law, putting it at odds with the rest of the country.

Aceh was granted special autonomy as part of a 2005 agreement to end decades of separatist violence, which allowed it to implement Sharia law.

Indonesia's Aceh to close churches after pressure from Muslim groups | Reuters

'We Were Treated Like Animals': The Story Of Indonesia's LGBT Activists

Aceh, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, is known for its draconian system of Sharia law. It has a population of 4.7 million and is the only province in Indonesia where homosexuality is illegal. The LGBT community has been forced “into hiding” there, according to Reuters.

Earlier this year, the deputy mayor of Banda Aceh, the province’s capital, labeled homosexuality “a social disease that should be eradicated.”

The province, however, isn't the only place in Indonesia where it's unsafe for the LGBT community.

Though homosexuality isn't technically criminalized under Indonesian law, in many states, such as south Sumatra, anti-prostitution laws (where “prostitution” is widely defined to include same-sex intercourse) are used to limit the rights of LGBT people, and according to activists, the community is marginalized even in bigger cities like Jakarta.

“LGBTI people are discriminated against in just about all domains of life,” Dédé Oetomo, founder of Gaya Nusantara, the first LGBT rights organization in the country, tells The Huffington Post. Discrimination even happens in the work place and in schools.

Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, is mostly conservative and society is “very heteronormative,” Oetomo says. “The greatest challenge is still the immediate family.”
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Despite myriad challenges, LGBT activism has been growing in Indonesia. About 120 LGBT grassroots organizations are currently in operation, working primarily “in health issues, publishing and organizing social and educational activities,” according to the USAID/UNDP report.

Still, despite a relatively vibrant activist community, activists say real change has been slow to come. 

'We Were Treated Like Animals': The Story Of Indonesia's LGBT Activists

Indonesian women wait to be whipped in front of a baying crowd for having unmarried sex | Daily Mail Online

A woman kneels and grimaces as she is lashed with a cane for having unmarried sex in an Indonesian province which is ruled under Sharia law in newly released photographs.  

The images show women dressed in white and sitting with their heads bowed as they wait their turn to be punished in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

In one photo, a woman can be seen kneeling on a red platform as her back is whipped with a cane in front of guards and members of the public.

Aceh is the only province in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country that is allowed to implement Islamic Sharia law.

Although public whipping is a common punishment in the province, it is rare for women to be caned.

Indonesian women wait to be whipped in front of a baying crowd for having unmarried sex | Daily Mail Online