Jakarta: police rejects compulsory headscarf for female officers
Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Indonesia's law enforcement authorities are resisting pressures from Islamic extremists to force female police officers to wear the jilbab, a traditional scarf that covers the head but not the face. Fundamentalist groups want all women to cover their head but police is adamant that all its officers respect the force's rules, which require that all members wear the same uniform in every province and regency, except Islamist-ruled Aceh.
Sharia has been in place in autonomous province after a local separatist movement, the GAM, and the central government struck a deal to end three decades of civil war.
In Aceh, Islamic principles and social mores are enforced, which ban women sitting astride motorcycles or wearing jeans or miniskirts. A special police force, the morality squad, is dedicated to this type of violations.
The controversy over headscarves for women police officers has been brewing for weeks, and the police stand has drawn negative responses from some human rights groups like the National Human Right Commission (Komnas HAM) as well as lawmakers from a number of political parties.
Police spokesman Ronnie F Sompie cut the controversy short, stating that the force's internal rules call for a single "official uniform" for all its members, including women. On the headscarf, the matter is clear, "wearing jilbab is not authorised" and "against the law".
In 2009, East Java's police chief was removed from office after two months because he had tried to impose a headscarf on women police officers.
In addition, many Indonesians rejected the "intrusion" by Komnas HAM and some lawmakers. In the first case, because the human rights commission should deal with the most serious rights violations like attacks against religious freedom (and Christians and Ahmadis). In the second, because politicians tend to intervene in order to attract support among extremist constituencies.
With a population of 231 million (2009), Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world. However, it is also home to large ethnic and religious minorities.
Muslims constitute 87 per cent of the population (mostly Sunni), Protestants are 6.1 per cent, Catholics are 4 per cent, whilst Hindus and Buddhists are 1 per cent.
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