Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Rizal Adi Syaputra says he is a proud punk, but still prefers to hide his dyed red hair under a cap.

The 20-year-old is a member of one of the Aceh capital's five punk communities that have become the latest target of the province's Wilayatul Hisbah, or Shariah Police, and Public Order Agency (Satpol PP).

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Network for Civil Society Concerned with Sharia (JMSPS) in Aceh has criticized clerics and asked them not to overly interfere in enforcing the Muslim dress code, especially for Muslim women in the province.

Nurdin Hasan – A group of 18 civil society organizations in Aceh has lashed out at local clerics' interpretation of Shariah, which it says is unduly focused on women's clothing.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A military prosecutor has lowered his demand for punishment from five years to less than 10 months in jail for a former intelligence officer who attacked a journalist and threatened to kill him and his family in Aceh in May.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Aceh is fast becoming a key destination for firearms smuggled into and around the country, a human rights activist said on Tuesday.

Zulfikar Muhammad, from the Aceh Human Rights Coalition, said the province's role in the illegal gun trade over the past year has become more apparent following a surge in armed crimes there last year.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An antigraft watchdog has called for the acquittal of two men facing defamation charges in Central Aceh, saying they were just doing their jobs when they reported corruption allegations possibly involving a district head.

People in Aceh province are advised against festive New Year's Eve celebrations, including the use of fireworks and blowing on trumpets because it is against Sharia law.

"It must be obeyed by the people," Said Yulizal, the head of Aceh's Sharia office told news portal Okezone.com.

Langsa, Aceh – Six years after the Indian Ocean tsunami swept more than 200,000 people to their death, Titik Yuniarti still clings to hope at least one of her children is alive.

Like other desperate mothers, she has placed ads begging for information in newspapers in western Indonesia and hung fliers alongside others fluttering from lampposts.

The rebuilding of Aceh from the enormous destruction of the 2004 tsunami has been impressive, but the province continues to lag behind the rest of the nation in terms of poverty, life expectancy and other quality of life indicators, the UN said in its first Aceh Human Development Report released today.

Christen Broecker – When President Obama went to Indonesia last month, he lauded its embrace of democracy in a speech at the University of Indonesia but made clear that equality was essential to its success.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Refugees from the Aceh conflict era admitted to having been intimidated by "anti-relocation" figures, saying that threats had deterred them from moving from a protected forest in North Sumatra to a new location in South Sumatra.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – If the Aceh legislature has its way, the province will soon have a supreme leader with the authority to dismiss the governor and disband the legislature.

Nurdin Hasan, Jantho, Indonesia – Two people received eight lashes each in Islamic Shariah law-controlled Aceh on Friday after being found engaging in an extramarital kiss.

A crowd of hundreds watched as Anis Saputra, 24, and Kiki Hanafilia, 17, were given eight lashes each at a mosque in Jantho, some 60 kilometers southeast of provincial capital Banda Aceh.

"God will punish us by sending another great earthquake and tsunami if we don't uphold and enforce sharia [Islamic law] in this land," says a resident of Banda Aceh.

Nurdin Hasan & Nivell Rayda, Banda Aceh & Jakarta – Aceh's deputy governor and Shariah Police chief have dismissed a critical report on the province from an international human rights group, calling it exaggerated and based on factual errors.

These two laws deny people's right to make their own decisions about who they meet and what they wear. The laws, and their selective enforcement, are an invitation to abuse. – Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch

Jakarta – Two local Shariah laws in Indonesia's Aceh province violate rights and are often enforced abusively by public officials and even private individuals, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Islamic boarding schools, called dayah in Aceh, are not just for the pious.

According to Hanisah, a 42-year-old Acehnese teacher, dayah are meant to shelter the downtrodden. And she has no qualms about proving shelter to anybody, even if it means risking her own life – as she did two years ago.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Hundreds of angry villagers in Manggi, West Aceh, on Saturday raided a subdistrict police station they believed was being used as a brothel and attacked a naked couple found inside, officials said on Sunday.

Nurdin Hasan & Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Banda Aceh & Jakarta – Seventy-eight civil society groups in Aceh have denounced a proposal to confer national hero status on former President Suharto, who they say bears most responsibility for a spate of human rights abuses in the province.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Opposition by ulema and councilors in Aceh to a woman becoming district head is reportedly weakening.

Anisa, who became head of Pelimbang district, Bireun regency on May 21, 2010, said the ulema and councilors had initially opposed her promotion arguing that it was against Islamic law.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – In a move criticized as an insult to the dignity of women, an Aceh district speaker has called for the replacement of a female subdistrict head, arguing that women were unfit to lead under Islamic law.

Nurdin Hasan, Jantho, Aceh – With heads bowed, two young women walked toward a wooden stage outside Al Munawwarah Mosque in Jantho, Aceh Besar. Friday prayers had just ended, and hundreds of residents surrounded the platform, keeping a respectful distance but keen to watch.

Ulma Haryanto, Jakarta – The Indonesian Council of Ulema have rejected comments from West Aceh district head Ramli Mansur that woman who fail to wear Islamic clothing are "asking to be raped."

Dewi Kurniawati, Banda Aceh – It doesn't take much to notice "Echa," a transvestite who lives in Banda Aceh. With his masculine figure and flamboyant make-up, he instantly draws attention.

Dewi Kurniawati, Aceh – Meet Ramli Mansur, a 46-year-old leader of the Aceh Party, whose members are mostly drawn from the ranks of former combatants of the disbanded Free Aceh Movement. Ramli made headlines earlier this year by sponsoring a controversial Islamic bylaw that banned Muslim women from wearing tight pants.

Dewi Kurniawati, Banda Aceh – On a recent Friday afternoon, the face of a young woman detained at a Shariah Police station in Aceh's provincial capital Banda Aceh was contorted in anger.

Dewi Kurniawati, Banda Aceh – Agnes Monica, the famous Indonesian actress and singer, is a given to wearing sexy clothes, whether on stage, TV or advertising billboards. But not here, in the provincial capital of Aceh province.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – More than 1,000 people gathered on Friday in Pidie Jaya to watch the district's first public canings for violations of Islamic law.

Meulaboh, Aceh – Almost a full week after three American citizens were deported from Indonesia's Aceh province for allegedly converting local Muslims to Christianity, Shariah Police and local government security officers swooped on their rented home on Tuesday.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Aceh's Sharia Police censured hundreds of women for wearing tight pants and jeans in Wednesday's raid in Banda Aceh.

Nurdin Hasan, Aceh – Authorities in West Aceh have told three Americans accused of converting local Muslims to leave the district for their own safety, while three of their alleged converts have been placed in an Islamic boarding school for "education," an official said on Wednesday.

Banda Aceh – An Indonesian court on Thursday jailed two Islamic policemen for gang-raping a young woman in custody, a case that has sparked outrage in the deeply religious province of Aceh.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A blockade of the giant Arun liquefied natural gas plant in northern Aceh by more than 500 villagers demanding the company honor 36-year-old promises entered its third week on Tuesday with no end in sight.

The blockade flared up on Monday when protesters scuffled with the police while trying to stop plant workers leaving by the main gate.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A group of men relaxes in a coffee shop in Lamkabeu village, Aceh Besar, chatting about the breaking news of terrorism in their village.

Nurdin Hasan – Public order officers readying to demolish illegal structures in Aceh's provincial capital were lucky to escape with their lives when protests quickly turned violent on Thursday.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Aceh is currently the fourth-biggest distributor of illegal drugs in the country and a major producer of marijuana, Vice Governor Muhammad Nazar says.

Nurdin Hasan, Jantho (Aceh) – Three of 21 men caught gambling on cards last month were caned with seven lashes each in public on Friday in Jantho, Aceh Besar district, the second time the punishment has been meted out this year in the deeply Islamic province.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Prosecutors on Tuesday asked the Langsa District Court in Aceh to sentence a member of the province's Wilayatul Hisbah Shariah Police to 12 years in prison for the alleged rape and torture of a 20-year-old female student in January.

Armando Siahaan – Aceh's government has failed to eradicate corruption in the province and has instead become mired in more graft, according to a scathing new survey released on Tuesday by a top watchdog.

Damien Kingsbury – Teungku (Lord) Hasan di Tiro, who led the bloody independence movement in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh for three decades, has died of complications from leukaemia in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. He was 84.

Fabio Scarpello, Denpasar – The death of Teungku Hasan Muhammad di Tiro, the founder of the former pro-independence Free Aceh Movement (GAM), could intensify existing divisions in Indonesia's historically restive Aceh region and complicate ongoing discussions with Jakarta concerning the implementation of a 2005 peace agreement signed in Helsinki.

Peace in Aceh was Tengku Hasan Muhammad di Tiro last wish before he died at the age of 84 on Thursday, his trusted aide Farid Husain said. "He asked for peace to be developed in Aceh. That was the main reason he returned to Indonesia and wanted to be a citizen," Husain told Metro TV.

Tom Allard, West Aceh – "Let me ask you a question," says the regent of West Aceh, Ramli Mansur, leaning back in his chair in his spacious office. "What do you think when you see a woman's round shapes?"

"Rather nice, I suppose," I reply. "But it wouldn't make me feel like raping anyone."

"Aah, but that's because you are used to it!"

Nurdin Hasan – If you are a Muslim woman who likes wearing tight jeans or miniskirts, then the West Aceh district may not be the place for you.

Starting today, the district government's Wilayatul Hisbah, or Shariah police, will go out on "raids" to find women they deem to be inappropriately dressed.

Ade Mardiyati – After the devastating tsunami in 2004, Aceh – then in the midst of an armed rebellion – entered a new era. The bloodshed was ended by a peace agreement signed by the Indonesian government and the pro-independence Free Aceh Movement in Helsinki on Aug. 15, 2005.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An East Aceh district councillor was hospitalized after an angry mob that suspected him of committing adultery attacked him while he was trying to escape from his love nest, residents of the town said on Monday.

Mohammad Yusuf, 32, was set upon by Langsa residents when he tried to flee the house on Sunday morning.

Selma Milovanovic – One-year-old Mayuri wriggles out of her father's arms and flops to the ship's deck. Gripping her father Sidik's hand, she takes wobbly steps, gurgling and smiling.

Around them, a rooster crows and children laugh. Tourists buy cool drinks on the ship-turned-cafe, surveying the ocean and settlements below.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A West Aceh district bylaw banning Muslim women from wearing short skirts or tight jeans is unclear and could lead to chaos, a female activist said on Friday.

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