Indonesia publicly canes 2 men dozens of times for consensual gay sex
World
Indonesia publicly canes 2 men dozens of times for consensual gay sex
Two men in Indonesia were publicly caned 83 times Tuesday for consensual gay sex, a punishment that intensifies an anti-gay backlash in the world’s most populous Muslim country and that rights advocates denounced as “medieval torture.” The couple were arrested in March after neighborhood vigilantes in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, suspecting them of being gay, broke into their rented room to catch them having sex. More than a thousand people packed the courtyard of a mosque to witness the caning. Sarojini Mutia Irfan, a female university student who attended, justified the beatings as a necessary deterrent.
What they have done is like a virus that can harm people’s morale. …This kind of public punishment is an attempt to stop the spread of the virus to other communities in Aceh.
Sarojini Mutia Irfan
This was the first time that Aceh, the only province in Indonesia to practice Shariah law, has caned people for homosexuality. Four heterosexual couples also were caned Tuesday, receiving a far lesser number of strokes for demonstrating affection outside marriage. With the exception of Aceh, homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, but the country’s low-profile LGBT community has been under siege in the past year. Prejudice has been fanned by stridently anti-gay comments from politicians and Islamic hard-liners, and a case before the country’s top court is seeking to criminalize gay sex and sex outside marriage. Human Rights Watch said the caning was torture under international law and has called on Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to intervene.
