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New penal code an invasion on marginalized bodies
Revisions to the KUHP that pertain to individuals’ sexual lives would, more than anything, lead to a systematic, state-sponsored affront to marginalized bodies, mainly women and sexual minorities.
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The Constitutional Court ruled to reject a petition to outlaw consensual sex outside of marriage and gay sex on December 2017. (JP/Seto Wardhana.)
M
any have argued that amendments being made to the Criminal Code (KUHP) at the House of Representatives will justify the state’s policing of the private spheres of citizens.
To me, it is more than that. Revisions to the KUHP that pertain to individuals’ sexual lives would, more than anything, lead to a systematic, state-sponsored affront to marginalized bodies, mainly women and sexual minorities.
This is the case because the main argument behind such moral-based provisions is that there is an objective convention on “appropriate” and “inappropriate” sexualities.
In this context, what is appropriate is the phallocentric-heteronormative sexuality, while the inappropriate ones are others not centered on the domination of male sexuality.
Of course, some would defend the revision as a means to protect women by outlawing any form of religious-based marriages that have become one of the main sources of gender-based domestic violence.
However, the provision against zina (sexual relations out of wedlock) within this backward new law will inevitably be another means of repressing women’s sexuality.
In addition, the criminalization of homosexuality will also prove to be fatal for those who are deemed homosexuals.
