Aceh Town to Ban Female Passengers from Straddling Motorcycles

The Jakarta Globe, January 02, 2013


Banda Aceh. The administration of the Aceh town of Lhokseumawe is set to issue a regulation that will ban female passengers from straddling motor bikes.

“We’ve seen that people’s behaviors and morals are getting far from Aceh’s Islamic cultural values. Therefore we will issue a regulation that will ban women from straddling while sitting on the passenger’s seat of motorcycles,” Lhokseumawe mayor Suaidi Yahya told the Jakarta Globe.

“We want to save women from things that will cause them to violate Shariah law. We wish to honor women with this ban, because they are delicate creatures,” he added.

Suaidi said his administration on Wednesday started distributing handouts to government offices and villages throughout the municipality to inform local residents of the new policy before the plan is formally implemented in a few months.

“There will be sanctions for those who violate [the regulation],” he added, although refusing to name the sanctions.

Suaidi further explained that the planned bylaw was expected to discourage women from wearing pants in public.

“It will be easier for women to avoid straddling motorcycles if all of them wear skirts.”

Suaidi claimed that the plan is supported by various groups, including local ulemas.

A student of Lhokseumawe’s Malikussaleh University, Nanda, immediately protested the plan, noting that straddling was safer and more comfortable than side-saddling, which would be the only position allowed for female passengers riding on motorcycles.

“That is a ridiculous regulation; there are many other things [the administration] can take care of if Islamic Shariah is their reasoning,” she said.

Jakarta Globe, January 12, 2013


A network of women’s and human rights organizations has called upon women living in the Aceh city of Lhokseumawe to ignore a bylaw banning female passengers from straddling motorcycles.

“We ask the people of Lhokseumawe not to abide by the regulation so that the local government learns a lesson on how to make wise directives,” Affan Ramli, a spokesman for the Care for Shariah Civil Society Network (JMSPS), said on Friday, as quoted by Antaranews.com.

The ban is deceiving to the public, according to the JMSPS, because neither Shariah law or precedents set in the development of Islamic jurisprudence deal with the prohibition of women sitting astride on motorcycles.

“None of Aceh’s traditional or local laws forbid women from straddling motorcycles,” Affan said. “In the history of Aceh, sitting manners have never been stipulated by the government. It was fully created from education and habit.”

Suaidi Yahya, the mayor of Lhokseumawe, recently told the Jakarta Globe that he wanted to introduce the bylaw because he had seen people’s behavior and morals straying too far from Aceh’s Islamic cultural values.

“We want to save women from things that will cause them to violate Shariah law,” he said. “We wish to honor women with this ban, because they are delicate creatures.”

Despite facing widespread criticism over the bylaw, the government in Lhokseumawe on Monday started enforcing the regulation, though only for civil servants.

The local government circulated a letter explaining the need for women to side-saddle motorcycles while in the passenger’s seat in order to prevent immoral acts. The letter also proposed banning men and women from hugging or holding hands while on vehicles.

“We will impose sanctions on [those who break the law]. We will shame them, warn them or fire them,” Dasni Yuzar, the secretary of the Lhokseumawe administration, said, as quoted by KBR68h.com.