Indonesia Prescribes One Year Jail Term For Extramarital Sex

In what critics have described as a “disaster” for human rights, Indonesia’s parliament has approved a new law that prohibits anyone in the country from having extramarital sex.

By the new law, which takes effect in three years, sex outside marriage will carry a jail sentence of up to one year.

According to the new law,  there is also restrictions on political freedoms, a development that comes after a rise in religious conservatism in the Muslim-majority country.

For the critics, besides describing the laws as a “disaster” for human rights, they also argued that they are potential blows to tourism and investment in the country.

Already, several groups of mainly young people have been protesting against the legislation outside parliament in Jakarta this week.

And most of them have expressed their desire to challenge and upturn the new laws in court.

The laws apply equally to locals and to foreigners living in Indonesia, or visiting holiday destinations such as Bali. Under the laws, unmarried couples caught having sex can be jailed for up to a year.

They are also banned from living together – an act for which people could be jailed for up to six months. Adultery will also be an offence for which people can be jailed.

Ajeng, a 28-year-old Muslim woman living in the West Java city of Depok, told BBC that she was now at risk for living with her partner for the past five years.

“With the new law, both of us can go to jail if one of the family decides to make a police report.

“What if there’s one family member who has a problem with me and decides to send me to jail?

“I think living together or having sex outside of marriage is not a crime. In my religion, it’s considered a sin. But I don’t think the criminal code should be based on a certain religion”.

She said she had joined the nationwide protests in 2019 when the law had first been broached. She took the sign; “For the right to cuddle, I took to the streets”.

Recalled that an Indonesia court had in December 2017 rejected a bid by some groups seeking to outlaw extramarital sex. – With agency reports