This week, Indonesian Government announced plans to ban access to the blogging site Tumblr.
Under the countries 2008 Pornography Law, the Communications and Information Ministry’s e-business director, Azhar Hasyim, has written to Tumblr demanding that the explicit content be removed.
If Tumblr then agrees to block pornography and LGBT content from being accessed in Indonesia, we will open [access to] the website again.”
The move comes after Indonesia ordered messaging apps and social networks to remove all lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender emoji earlier this month, on the grounds that the images would cause “unrest” in the majority-Muslim country.
The government has in the past blocked sites like Netflix, Vimeo, and Reddit over violent or pornographic content, and has asked Twitter to implement porn filters for users in the country.
The government’s information ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu said:
No social media may show items that smack of LGBT. Because we have our own rules, like religious values and norms, which they must respect.”
Human rights campaigners have voiced concerns for the women’s safety, after they were arrested in Indonesia and forced to undergo “rehabilitation for lesbianism”. As yet, it’s unclear what the ‘rehabilitation’ will entail.
The couple, aged 18 and 19 and known only by their initials AS and N, were detained in the country’s Sharia-controlled Aceh province after they were seen hugging.
The area is governed by strict Sharia law, which means the women could face caning, prison, or a large fine.
While Shariah police chief Evendi Latief admitted that the pair had confirmed they were lesbians during four days of questioning, he denied their human rights had been violated.
They will undergo rehabilitation which involves psychologists from local Social Ministry office.”
However, Graeme Reid from Human Rights Watch claimed the arrest and subsequent treatment of the girls exhibited an “outrageous abuse of power”.
The arrest of two women in Aceh for everyday behaviour is an outrageous abuse of power that should be considered a threat to all Indonesians. The Indonesian government needs to press Aceh to repeal its discriminatory new bylaws.”
LGBT people are regularly targeted by authorities in the area – just last month, ten trans women were arrested for ‘cross-dressing’, before being forced to leave.
Aceh is the only province in the Muslim-majority country that operates strict Sharia law.
Since last year, gay sex is punishable by punished a 100 months in jail, 100 lashes, or a fine equivalent to 1,000 grams of gold.
Homosexuality is legal in the rest of Indonesia, though the age of consent for gay sex is higher than for straight sex.
Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population – but outside of the Aceh, most practice a more moderate form of the faith.
It’s a little known fact that Indonesia has the highest Muslim population in the entire world. With 87% of the population being of the Islamic faith (and most of the remaining 13% being Roman Catholic), it means that the country is incredibly conservative.
For women in Indonesia, this puts a high amount of pressure and heavy expectations on them. Women are expected to settle down, marry, have children and be good mothers and wives – and it also means that if you are a queer woman, you shouldn’t expect your sexuality to be accepted by the masses.
This is something that new narrative feature film, In the Absence of the Sun, wants to show. Directed by Lucky Kuswandi, the new film follows the lives of three different Indonesian women over the course of one evening, all in different circumstances but each of them struggling because of the country’s societal norms.
One of the women is named Gia who returns home to Jakarta (the capital city of Indonesia) after building up her career as a filmmaker in New York City. The use of ‘home’ soon appears to be ironic, though, as she experiences a huge, unexpected culture shock.
So, as queer woman having a hard time in the big city would do, she calls up her ex, Naomi, and asks her for a tour. Sadly though, even Naomi recognises that the religious beliefs of the country means that “there’s no place for [them]”, and she states that eventually they’ll both have to become “breeding stock”.
Then, there’s Indri and Mrs Surya, two women who are more than happy to prescribe to the traditional way of life. Indri is just 24 but she’s desperately searching for Mr. Right, hoping that he’ll be good to her and pay her bills, and she’s turning to the online dating scene to help her find him.
Mrs Surya, meanwhile, has just lost her husband and after finding that there’s “nothing to hang onto anymore” since people only know her because of her husband’s name, she’s devastated to find out that he had another woman in his life; a prostitute named Sofia.
Because of the dramatic nature of films, In the Absence of the Sun is perhaps not as hard-hitting as a documentary would be. However, if you’re looking for some kind of insight (at least, a small one) into Indonesian society, then it’s still a prime example.
Visit the film’s Twitter page to find out where you can watch it.
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