Nurdin Hasan – A plan to draft a bylaw on how Islamic men and women in Aceh's Bireuen District should dress as Muslims is a wasteful effort that nobody needs, activists say.

"We demand the Bireuen Legislative Council drop the qanun [Islamic bylaw] about how a Muslim should dress, because the indicators used in the bylaw are very abstract, it is very elusive to be implemented," Sudarman, team leader of BIMA, a Bireuen-based non government organization focusing in economy, education and peace advocacy, told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.

"I believe if the qanun is passed it will be ignored by people in Bireuen because it is not what they need," he said.

Ridwan Muhammad, head of the Bireuen Legislative Council (DPRK), told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday that they were discussing the content of the qanun with the local ulema, ethics assembly and public figures. He also said that the council would seek public opinion before passing the bylaw.

"The heart of the qanun on Islamic dressing is for all Bireuen residents, male and female adults to cover their aurat [entire body except the hands and face]," Ridwan explained. "The implementation [of the bylaw] is being studied and enhanced by involving several parties."

Ridwan said that the councilors decided to bring up the bylaw for discussion after they discovered several people in the Bireuen district were not dressing in the "Islamic" way, such as women wearing jeans and tight outfits and men wearing shorts outside their homes.

The draft bylaw states that females should wear loose outfits and should not show their body shape, while men are told to wear outfits that cover their aurat, Ridwan explained.

Sudarman said people in Bireuen knew how to dress properly, therefore a bylaw regulating how to dress would be useless. "The DPRK should have focused on producing regulations to improve the economy instead of controversial qanun," he argued.

Nursiti, head of the presidium of BSUIA, a union of Aceh activists from various backgrounds, said the Bireuen Legislative Council had set the wrong priority by telling people how they should dress. "They should be focusing on accelerating the welfare, because that's what our people need," she said.

Nursiti said the council should instead, focus their energy on stopping religious intolerance in the district. "Why can't they learn from the experience of other districts in Aceh who came up with such bylaws but in the end the regulations could not be implemented?" she said.