Issues: `Women are banned from wearing trousers'

Tue, 11/17/2009 1:17 PM  |  Reader's Forum

Starting from Jan. 1, 2010, there will be no more women wearing trousers in West Aceh. West Aceh Regent Ramli M.S. has signed a bylaw that prohibits women in the regency from wearing trousers. To anticipate the huge number of slacks to be cut up by police during raids, the regency's administration has prepared around 7,000 long skirts, which will be provided free to those caught wearing trousers.

The West Aceh regent was quoted by a newspaper last month as saying that "We have issued the regulation to further enforce Islamic sharia granted by the central government". The new bylaw on the banning of trousers adds to another controversial law in Aceh launched earlier in September under the Islamic bylaw system, which included articles on stoning adulterers to death and caning for premarital sex. Across the country, the new bylaw adds to many similar policies in other regions that rule on women's dress code and behavior.

The report on the ban on women wearing trousers in West Aceh reminds me of Lubna Ahmed Al Hussein, a female Sudanese journalist who made headlines for her courage in challenging her government by refusing to admit that she had committed a crime by wearing trousers. Lubna was caught wearing a blouse and trousers in a restaurant in Khartoum in July this year. Under the strict interpretation of sharia law adopted by the Sudanese regime, wearing trousers in public is considered indecent for a woman and causes "public uneasiness". (by Indraswari, Kuala Lumpur)

Your comments:
I think the victim is not just women. The effort to implement the Islamic sharia law will disrupt the unity of this nation. Sooner or later it will trigger discrimination against minority groups.

Herry Susanto
Bandung

Yes I agree with the writer's statement. It is all about money and nothing to do with religion. The chief of the district just wants money from those skirts. I am an Acehnese boy and I do not agree with Islamic extremism. Islam is a fair religion, and we have to focus more on tolerance toward others.

Odya Muthawally
Kuala Lumpur

I agree with Indraswari except for two points. It is about religion. Organized religion has always been the mechanism by which the powerful exercise and maintain control by claiming divine authority. I do not agree that there is any point in demanding that the central government assert its authority and duty to defend the constitution.

This administration has shown time and again that it has no interest in doing so. In fact, there is no central government, there is only money. The state is rotten through and through. Women are at least 50 percent of the population and have tremendous power.

Let them all follow the courageous example of Lubna Ahmed Al Hussein and show they are no longer prepared to be second-class citizens.

All bullies are cowards and these silly and childish rules can be broken. All we need to be free is to want to be free.

Rafiq Mahmood
Bogor, West Java

It's interesting to read that "this is not about religion. This is about how a group of people in power interpret religion". So perhaps the problem of traffic jams in Jakarta is not about cars. It's about how certain people choose to drive their cars on roads that other people want to use at the same time.

Perhaps the high incidence of early death from diseases caused by smoking is not about smoking.

It's about how certain people decide to smoke cigarettes despite having no evidence that they are immune to smoking-related diseases. Perhaps the problem of polluted rivers is not about trash.

It's about how groups of people throw their trash into rivers in places where it is likely to eventually obstruct the river's flow and make the water unfit for drinking and bathing.

Or perhaps problems that are caused by religion, like terrorism, intolerance, mismanagement of social problems and oppression of women, non-believers and minorities really are about religion.

John Hargreaves
Jakarta

What the regent of West Aceh prohibits is not wearing trousers, but tight pants that can deteriorate the local social values and norms. Tight pants are not part of Acehnese culture, and are un-Islamic as well. It could bring more harm than benefits.

Riadi
West Aceh

This bylaw is ridiculous. I would suggest that in Aceh all those fanatical men wear skirts like men in Scotland and to flog them if they wear anything else!

Philippe
Paris

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