2024-02-19 06:55:52
New warning shot for individual freedoms in Indonesia. Parliament has just adopted an amendment to the penal code severely toughening penalties against any extramarital sexual relations. Explanations.
Concubination and adultery in the crosshairs of the authorities
Promiscuity and sexual debauchery are in the sights of the Indonesian government. Under the guise of respecting traditional family values, the latter has just modified the country’s penal code to criminalize intimate relations between unmarried people.
Thus, any cohabitation outside the sacred bonds of marriage is now punishable by 6 months of imprisonment. As for adultery, it will cost you 1 year in prison if it is proven by the courts.
Another attack on individual freedoms
Behind the moralization of morals, it is a new attack on individual freedoms that human rights organizations are criticizing. This legislative tightening also confirms the rise in power of conservative religious currents in recent years in the largest Muslim country in the world.
To the great dismay of Indonesian youth, the overwhelming majority of whom have spoken out against what they consider to be state interference in the private lives of citizens. And this is probably not the last blow to public freedoms given by the current regime.