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Indonesia’s
Aceh Province To Enforce Islamic Dress Code
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| Indonesia has the
world's largest Muslim population. |
By
Kazi Mahmood, IOL South Asia correspondent
JAKARTA,
March 4 (IslamOnline) - Authorities in the province of Aceh Darussalam said
Monday that they would start enforcing an Islamic dress code for Muslims in
towns and cities this month.
Aceh
has introduced Sharia or Islamic Law in a bid to curb separatism in the province
and the move to impose the dress code is also part of the same plan.
Aceh’s
provincial secretary Thantawi Ishak said the regulation would be introduced on
March 15. He added that in the first phase, proper Muslim attire for women will
be required in all urban areas in Aceh.
According
to several sources in Indonesia, Aceh is the rare province where Islam is
practiced ardently by the people. Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesmen have also
emphasized that people in Aceh were strong followers of Islam.
However
they all agree that it might be true some people in the province, especially
ladies, did not follow the Islamic dress code.
Islam
requires women to cover everything except their face, hands and feet, while
Muslim men must cover their midriff and wear shorts that cover their knees,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Monday, March 4.
The
province has decided that it is the local police that would be responsible for
the enforcement of the new regulation. It gave the police the right to carry
regular street checks even though initially any violators would just be warned
and excluded from urban areas.
In
Malaysia, it is a special religious enforcement body that carries out raids and
checks in public on ladies and even men who do not follow Islamic dress codes.
However,
in recent years, there has been lesser raids in Kuala Lumpur, where ladies
wearing skimpy and other non-Islamic revealing dresses can be seen wandering
freely in town.
Aceh
has not decided on what further sanctions it would impose on people who violate
the codes. Firm sanctions would only come from Allah “because the order to
cover up the body comes from the Holy Qur’an," said Ishak.
Ishak
also said that all government and private offices must install business signs in
Arabic-style script, something new in Indonesia where only Indonesian language
was allowed until recently.
In
Malaysia, Arabic-style script can be seen on road plates and on buildings.
Indonesia
has the world's largest Muslim population, but Islam is not the official
religion and Sharia is not in force anywhere else in the country.
It
has a population of 212 million people 85-90% of which are Muslims.
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