Aceh, the only Indonesian province given special authority to enact sharia laws, has seen numerous instances of human rights violations in their enforcement of their ultra-conservative interpretation of said laws, such as public canings for those caught engaging in premarital and LGBT relations.Aceh seems to also have had an influence in the making of one of Southeast Asia's most c

Agus Setyadi, Banda Aceh – The Brunei Darussalam sultanate has enacted laws ranging from canning to stoning to death for the crime of homosexuality. Prior to enacting the laws, Brunei conducted comparative studies in Aceh to learn about Islamic law.

A group of unmarried couples were whipped in Indonesia's Aceh province on Thursday after they were caught behaving amorously – a crime under the conservative region's Islamic law.

Husaini Endehttp, Banda Aceh – Hundreds of cross-sector women activists in the Banda Aceh provincial capital of Aceh from the Syura Ureung Inong Aceh Association (BSUIA) held a long-march on Friday March 8 to celebrate International Women's Day (IWD) 2019.

During the action, they urged the government to ratify the Draft Law on the Elimination of Sexual Violence (RUU PKS).

Six couples were publicly whipped in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province Monday for relations outside marriage, with at least two women unable to walk after the painful punishment.

Muhammad Ifdhal, Banda Aceh – Aceh Regional House of Representatives (DPRA) Commission VIII chairperson Ghufran Zainal Abidin says that Indonesia's western-most province rejects the Draft Law on the Elimination of Sexual Violence (RUU PKS) which is currently being deliberated by the House of Representatives (DPR)."This RUU must be rejected by broader society because it is potential

Marchio Irfan Gorbiano, Jakarta – The Arun Lhokseumawe Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Aceh, which houses one of the country's natural gas facilities, could be the latest example of the use of underutilized assets to boost local economies, said the State Asset Management Agency (LMAN).

Jakarta – The corruption trial of suspended Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf began to unfold like a soap opera after his close companion, Steffy Burase, was grilled on the stand about allegedly receiving a portion of the money the former had allegedly embezzled.

Euan McKirdy – Two 18-year-olds were publicly flogged Thursday in the conservative Indonesian state of Aceh for displaying affection.

The college student and her boyfriend each received 17 lashes for publicly cuddling, which is a violation of the state's strict interpretation of Sharia law, according to a government spokesman.

Banda Aceh (AFP) – Two teenagers were whipped in Indonesia's Aceh province on Thursday (Jan 31) after they were caught cuddling in public – a crime under the conservative region's Islamic law.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The rampant destruction of forests in the Leuser ecosystem, a major water source for Aceh, has led to frequent flooding in the province.

Jack Board, Bireuen, Indonesia – For one of the world's most persecuted minorities, in the midst of their struggle, there was always one place they were welcomed.

In another horrifying case of domestic violence in Indonesia, a man from the Bireuen Regency of Aceh allegedly committed a brutal crime against his own wife, reportedly because she wanted to leave him.

A 60-year-old man, identified by his initials HR, allegedly poured boiling water over his wife, identified as M – simply because she wanted to divorce him.

Agus Setyadi, Jakarta – New Year's Eve in the Acehnese provincial capital of Aceh was not celebrated this year as it was in other parts of Indonesia. City residents just passed through the city's streets and there was no gathering of people.

Jakarta – Officials and religious leaders in Aceh have called on Muslims in the province not to celebrate the New Year for religious reasons.

Thousands prayed at mass graves Wednesday to mark the 14th anniversary of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters in history, even as aid workers raced to help victims of the latest killer wave to hit Indonesia.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Hundreds of Aceh residents flocked to the Siron mass grave in Lambaro, Aceh Besar, to pay respect to victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that shattered the province and led to the death of over 150,000 people in the province alone.

Jakarta – Construction workers on a public housing project in Kajhu Village in Aceh Besar, Aceh, were shocked to find 45 body bags bodies believed to be victims of the 2004 tsunami as they were excavating to build a septic tank.

The workers said they did no know that part of the land for the housing project was actually a mass grave.

Banda Aceh Mayor Aminullah Usman says he will revoke the business licenses of hotels in Banda Aceh that provide facilities for people to celebrate New Year.

John McBeth, Jakarta – He has fallen a long way since evolving from an independence fighter into Aceh's first democratically elected two-term governor, but Irwandi Yusuf's shock indictment on corruption charges throws light on the ugly political underbelly of a province that once earned sympathy around the world.

East Aceh, Indonesia – A group of men caught gambling were publicly whipped in Indonesia's conservative Muslim province of Aceh on Tuesday as a crowd of onlookers cheered.

The half dozen men were arrested this year at an internet cafe for online gambling – an offence under Islamic law – earning them between seven and 11 strokes each from a rattan cane.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia given special autonomy to implement sharia-based laws. Leaning towards the conservative side of Islam, Aceh enforces a strict dress-code, with women usually being on the receiving end of discriminative laws that require them to wear hijab (headscarves) and prohibits clothing such as jeans.

Banda Aceh (AFP) – A village in a conservative region of Indonesia is pulling the plug on wireless Internet after children were caught accessing porn sites instead of going to Quran study class, officials said on Monday (Nov 26).

Curee Baroh village in Aceh province has ordered half a dozen local cafes to shut their cheap Wi-Fi service immediately.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Village leaders of Curee Baroh in Simpang Mamplam district, Bireun regency, Aceh, have issued a circular that calls on all cafes to remove access to free Wi-Fi, which they have blamed for distracting children from their studies and Quran recital sessions.

Kharishar Kahfi, Jakarta – Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors indicted suspended Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf on Monday in three separate corruption cases.

A village in the Indonesian province of Aceh – the only region in Indonesia with special autonomy to enact religious bylaws – is saving its children from the worldly distractions that are coffee and Wi-Fi.

In Indonesia's highly conservative province of Aceh, locals often take the law into their own hands. While the province's self-appointed moral vigilantes often target young unmarried couples or people they suspect of being LGBT with the tacit support of police, in this latest incident of vigilante justice, the target was the police.

Jakarta – The Aceh branch of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has emphasized its support for the government's measles and rubella (MR) immunization drive in the conservative Muslim province.

The government's much-delayed measles-rubella (MR) vaccine drive now has the full backing of provincial administrations throughout the country – the last hold out being the ultra-conservative province of Aceh – though it remains to be seen if the backing of the regional governments will be able to overcome religious-based anti-vaccine paranoia.

Carly Read – The woman, who has not been not named, was barbarically punished as a crowd gathered and watched on in horror in Aceh, located north-west of Sumatra.

The Indonesian government's current nationwide drive to administer the measles-rubella (MR) vaccine to 32 million children has hit major obstacles due to fear among Muslim parents that the vaccine contains "haram" ingredients, leading officials to warn of a possibly devastating MR epidemic on the horizon.

The Indonesian government is still undertaking a massive nationwide drive to administer the measles-rubella vaccine to millions of children across the archipelago, but concerns over non-halal components in the vaccine have proven to be a huge impediment to their efforts, particularly in the ultra-conservative province of Aceh where the government has only reached around 7% of their

In Aceh, the only province in Indonesia allowed to implement Islamic sharia based laws, women have often become victims of discrimination in the name of religion.

That continues to be the case in the Bireuen Regency of Aceh, which recently passed a number of new regulations for cafes operating in the area.

Apriadi Gunawan and Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Bireuen regency administration in Aceh province has issued a circular asking coffee shops, cafes and restaurants to ensure that male and female customers who are not married or related to one another do not sit at the same table together.

Banda Aceh – A district in Indonesia's deeply Islamic Aceh province has banned men and women from dining together unless they are married or related, according to an official who said it would help women be "more well behaved".

Agus Setyadi, Aceh – Bireuen regent Saifannur has issued a new regulation on the "standardisation" of coffee shops, cafes and restaurants in the regency in accordance with Sharia law.

In one of the points, it states that it is haram (forbidden under Islamic law) for men and women to eat at the same table unless they are muhrim – lawfully married or related.

A few months ago, the (literally) shitty punishment forced on a couple accused of allegedly getting intimate out of wedlock in Aceh shocked and disgusted the world, even by the ultra conservative province's standards. A new incident shows that punishment was not an isolated act of mob justice.

Jakarta – Prospective legislative candidates in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, participated in a Quran recitation test on Monday to meet the requirements to run in the 2019 general election.

Reuters, Banda Aceh – Indonesia's ultra-conservative Aceh province held a public caning of 15 people on Friday (13/07), including of two men who received 87 lashes each for having gay sex, despite an earlier pledge to restrict access and only hold caning inside prisons.

Euan McKirdy – As many as 15 people, including five women, were punished with public caning Friday for violating Sharia law in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province.

Two men accused of being gay received 87 lashes each for gay sex, while nine others were sentenced up to 26 lashes for adultery. Four people, one of whom is female, were lashed 27 times for being drunk.

A gay couple was publicly whipped in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province Friday, despite an earlier pledge by officials to stop the punishment after it drew international criticism.

The two men were flogged more than 80 times each for having gay sex, which is outlawed under local Islamic law, as a jeering crowd hurled abuse at them.

Devina Heriyanto, Jakarta – Aceh province is again in the news following the arrest of Governor Irwandi Yusuf on corruption allegations on Tuesday evening.

Jakarta – An unidentified person threw Molotov cocktails at the office of Aceh-based tabloid newspaper Modus in Gampong Berauwe, Aceh, on Saturday.

There were no casualties reported but the building suffered from minor damages.

Krithika Varagur, Bireuen – The 79 Rohingya refugees who set off on a boat from Myanmar's Rakhine state last month were terrified when they were intercepted and redirected by Thailand's navy.

Washing up on the shores of a country they were not expecting seemed, at first, like yet another blow.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan, North Sumatra – Environment watchdog Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) is calling on the government to immediately stop illegal crude oil drilling activities in Aceh, following a fire at an illegal oil well in Peureulak, East Aceh, early on Wednesday that killed 11 people.

Iffah Nur Arifah – The decision of the Aceh Provincial Government in Indonesia to move flogging from public into more closed spaces has drawn resistance from the public and the local parliament.

On April 12, Aceh's governor Irwandi Yusuf signed a new rule to ban the whipping of criminals in public.

A group of amorous couples and alleged sex workers were publicly whipped for breaking Islamic law in Indonesia's Aceh Friday, just a week after the province pledged to move the widely condemned practice indoors.

Heri Juanda, Banda Aceh, Indonesia – Indonesia's deeply conservative Aceh province on Friday caned several unmarried couples for showing affection in public and two women for prostitution before an enthusiastic audience of hundreds.

Banda Aceh, Indonesia – Indonesia's conservative Aceh province will no longer allow canings for violations of Shariah law to be carried out in public, its governor said Thursday, apparently in response to international condemnation of the caning last year of two men for gay sex that damaged Indonesia's moderate image.

Indonesia's Aceh province will stop caning criminals in public after a wave of international condemnation of the practice, local officials said Thursday.