Two Christians were whipped in public on 27 February in Banda Aceh, the capital of the Sumatran province of Aceh, as a crowd took photos and jeered.
Dahlan Sili Tongga, 61, and Tjia Nyuk Hwa, 45, were punished for breaking Sharia law by playing a game at a children’s entertainment centre, which the authorities judged to be tantamount to gambling. Tongga and Hwa were whipped six and seven times respectively.
Sharia law for all
Aceh is the only province governed by Sharia, and the courts impose hundreds of whippings every year. Previously, the laws only applied to Muslims, but this changed in December 2013, when they became effective for members of all religious groups.
Life as a non-Muslim is very restricted in the province. Aceh’s authorities do not allow new churches to be established, whereas in other provinces that is still possible.
Aceh’s regulations stipulate a strict dress code, requiring women to adhere to hijab, (Islamic dress). Citizens in Central Aceh who fail to comply with the Muslim dress code forfeit their right to assistance from local public or private institutions, regardless of their religious affiliation.
The cases of Christians being subjected to flogging are rare because the number of Christians in Aceh is small, making up around 1.2% (about 50,000 people) of the province’s population.
But although Christians are rarely whipped, there have been multiple cases where Christians were harassed – for example, unmarried Christian couples being dragged to a religious office for walking together (Sharia prohibits physical proximity between unmarried people), only for it to be clarified later that they were Christians.
