SHOCKING: Gang-Raped Woman in Indonesia Faces Caning for Adultery

A crowd watches as a woman is caned by a sharia police officer dressed in black robes at a public square in Aceh, Indonesia's only province that practices partial sharia law (Photo Credit: Riza Lazuardi/AFP/Getty Images).

A crowd watches as a woman is caned by a sharia police officer dressed in black robes at a public square in Aceh, Indonesia’s only province that practices partial sharia law (Photo Credit: Riza Lazuardi/AFP/Getty Images).

By Claudia Vandermade, Amnesty USA Southeast Asia Co-Group Chair and Action Network Coordinator 

Yes – you read this blog title correctly. Maybe you shook your head, gasped, blinked your eyes and re-read it. The answer to your sputtered question is: Shari’a laws in Aceh, Indonesia.

On May 1, a group of eight men stormed into the woman’s house in Langsa district, accused her of having an affair with a married man, gang-raped her and beat her male companion. Now, she may face being caned a maximum of nine times for the crime of adultery.

After the rape and beating, the couple was handed over to the district’s Shari’a office by the local village head. The province police arrested three of the eight men on May 4, and are still looking for the others.

Aceh’s provincial legislature passed a series of bylaws governing the implementation of Shari’a law after the enactment of the province’s Special Autonomy Law in 2001. Caning was introduced as a punishment carried out by Shari’a courts for a range of offences including adultery, consumption of alcohol, being alone with someone of the opposite sex who is not a marriage partner or relative (khalwat) and for any Muslim found eating, drinking or selling food during sunlight hours in the fasting month of Ramadan.

Aceh’s Shari’a laws targeting women have made news a number of times, including this spring when police pulled women over and forcing them to sit sideways on motorbikes, with their legs dangling by the rear wheel (Photo credit should read REZA JUANDA/AFP/Getty Images).

Aceh’s Shari’a laws targeting women have made news a number of times, including this spring when police pulled women over and forcing them to sit sideways on motorbikes, with their legs dangling by the rear wheel (Photo credit should read REZA JUANDA/AFP/Getty Images).

At least 139 people were caned in Aceh province between 2010 and 2013.

Aceh’s Shari’a laws targeting women have made news a number of times, including recently when women passengers were banned from straddling motorbikes. Amnesty International’s submission to the U.N. Human Rights Committee in July 2013 pointed to the Shari’a police, and sometimes members of the public, conducting raids to ensure that women comply with the local regulation dress codes. In 2012, local newspapers reported that 62 women in Bireuen district were detained for wearing “tight clothing.”

As a word of warning, with very little publicity the Aceh provincial administrative and legislative council have approved a bylaw that obliges all residents in Aceh to follow Shari’a, so think twice about those travel plans.

Now that you’ve stopped shaking, it’s time to take action. Tell Indonesian authorities that caning this woman would constitute torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

AIUSA welcomes a lively and courteous discussion that follow our Community Guidelines. Comments are not pre-screened before they post but AIUSA reserves the right to remove any comments violating our guidelines.

6 thoughts on “SHOCKING: Gang-Raped Woman in Indonesia Faces Caning for Adultery

  1. I grew up at a time in the last century when there was an almost universal expectation that we could expect progress in almost all areas of life even if it was very slow in some places. Now in large parts of the world not only has progress in the quality of life slowed to a crawl, it is shifted into reverse gear.. Religious extremism (which is not limited to Islam), predatory capitalism and the resurgence of torture are only a few of the manifestations of this phenomenon of repeating the mistakes of the past. Thank goodness we have organizations like Amnesty International that give folks a vehicle for fighting modern cruelties.

  2. Oh for love of God this is not real Shar'iah law- these countries make me utterly sick. How bloody dare ruin such a perfect religion.

  3. Although I disapprove, Shari'a law in Aceh is allows public caning. Please meditate upon that word "public."
    Rape is not allowed as a punishment, and as an Islamic scholar wrote, “The rapists have to be punished more severely because they have abused the implementation of Shari‘a.”
    I relate to the comment by Jim Roberts.

  4. Although I disapprove, Shari'a law in Aceh is allows public caning. Please meditate upon that word "public." Nowhere in the Koran or Aceh's law is RAPE approved as a punishment.

  5. Although I disapprove, Shari'a law in Aceh is allows public caning. Please meditate upon that word "public." Nowhere in the Koran or Aceh's laws is RAPE approved as a punishment.

Comments are closed.