Indonesia’s parliament has approved a new criminal code that bans anyone in the country from having extramarital sex and restricts political freedoms.
Sex outside of marriage will be punishable by up to one year in prison under the new laws, which will come into effect in three years.
The raft of changes comes after a rise in religious conservatism in the Muslim-majority country.
Critics see the laws as a “disaster” for human rights and a potential blow to tourism and investment.
Several groups, mainly youth, protested the legislation outside parliament in Jakarta this week. The new rules are expected to be challenged in court.
They apply equally to locals and expats living in Indonesia, or holiday destinations like Bali. Under the law, an unmarried couple caught having sex can be jailed for up to a year.
They are also banned from living together – an act that could land people in jail for up to six months. Adultery would also be a crime for which people could be jailed.
Supporters of the legislation say the changes are made to address the concerns of critics — that the accused couple’s children, parents or spouses must be listed in order to initiate a complaint.
Ajeng, a 28-year-old Muslim woman living in Depok, West Java, said she is now in danger for living with her partner for the past five years.
“With the new law, if one of the family decides to make a police report, we can both go to jail,” he told JEE News.
“What if there is a family member who has a problem with me and decides to send me to jail?
“I don’t think cohabiting or having sex outside of marriage is a crime. In my religion it is considered a sin. But I don’t think the criminal code should be based on a particular religion.”
She said she joined nationwide protests in 2019 when the law was first used. She took the hint: “For the right to hug, I took to the streets.”
However, on Tuesday, Parliament unanimously approved the new code of over 600 articles.
Rights groups say the new provisions disproportionately affect women, LGBT people and ethnic minorities.
Many businesses also opposed the legislation, saying it discouraged visitors and investment. But lawmakers have celebrated the revival of Dutch colonial-era laws.
“It is time for us to take a historic decision to amend the Penal Code and abandon the colonial criminal code that we have inherited,” Law Minister Yasuna Lawley told parliament.
The new legislation includes several new provisions criminalizing immorality and blasphemy and banning political and religious expression.
Elaine Pearson, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, told JEE News it was a huge blow for a country that has tried to present itself as a modern Muslim democracy.
Andreas Harsano, a Jakarta-based researcher at the group, said there are millions of couples in Indonesia without marriage certificates “especially among local people or Muslims in rural areas” who married in specific religious ceremonies.
“These people would theoretically be breaking the law because cohabitation carries a prison sentence of up to six months,” he told JEE News.
He added that research from Gulf states, where there are similar laws on sex and relationships, showed that women are punished and victimized more by such moral laws than men.
The code now also includes six blasphemy laws, including apostasy – abandoning religion. For the first time since its independence, Indonesia will make it illegal to persuade someone to be a pagan.
The new defamation articles also make it illegal for people to insult the president or criticize state ideology.
However, the lawmakers said they included protections for freedom of expression and protests that are carried out in the “public interest”.
