The Indonesian city of Tasikmalaya in West Java is seeking to implement controversial Sharia based laws which would make it compulsory for all Muslim women in the city to wear headscarfs and criminalise homosexuality.
Homosexuality is not an offence under Indonesia’s national laws. However many local government areas within the country have sought to ban it by including it in local public morality laws.
The Tasikmalaya law was originally passed by councillors from Islamic parties in 2009 but city officials have taken until now to develop the regulations needed to implement it.
The law also outlaws adultery, pornography and the consumption of alcohol within the municipality’s borders.
Tasikmalaya city secretary Tio Indra Setiadi told OnIslam.net that the city would set up a squad of Sharia police to enforce the law like those already operating in Indonesia’s autonomous province of Aceh.
“This bylaw is intended mainly to educate people to live in accordance with Islamic teachings,” Setiadi said.
“[But] people intending to report violations of the bylaw will face difficulties if we don’t have an apparatus to enforce it.”