Jakarta – Activists are demanding legislators ensure women's political rights are protected in the Aceh governance bill expected to be passed into law by the middle of next month. The bill should allocate quotas for women in local political parties, they said.

Tunggal Pawestri, the coordinator for women and election programs at the Center for Election Reform (Cetro), said the House must retain Article 67 of the bill, which requires local political parties to allocate at least 30 percent of membership positions to women.

"The Aceh legislative council has included articles on women's representation in the Aceh bill, but lawmakers at the national level are planning to scrap them, claiming the quota for women could hinder the establishment of local parties," she said Thursday.

Tunggal said this indicated the House of Representatives doubted the capability of Acehnese women in participating in politics. "The House has no need to worry," she said. Tunggal said committee members organizing local parties in Aceh had told her it was not difficult to get women to participate.

A House special committee, which first drew up the Aceh bill, ruled local political parties must allocate 30 percent of all their positions to women. However, the working committee, which is assigned to finalize the legislation, is considering eliminating the quota because of what it says are potential problems in its implementation.

Irmadi Lubis, an Acehnese member of the working committee from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), told The Jakarta Post the 30 percent requirement was to be removed to avoid making it difficult for local parties to form in Aceh.

However, the regulation still required local parties to be concerned about women's representation, he said. "The elimination of the requirement will leave the allocation of quotas to the local government." Irmadi said passing quotas should be the privilege of local Acehnese administrations through the issuance of qanun.

"We know that local bylaws are influenced by sharia, and the Hadith (a narrative of the teachings and customs of the Prophet Muhammad) suggests that women stay at home, while men are involved in outside activities," he said. "So, we'll leave this concern to the Aceh administration, which includes sharia experts and ulema."

However, Nurjanah Ismail, a lecturer with the Arraniri State Institute of Islamic Studies in Banda Aceh, disagreed that Islam restricted women's participation in politics.

"The Koran even tells the story of the prosperous reign of a queen," she said. "Aceh's history also includes women heroes. Today, I can see that more Acehnese women are interested in politics."

Recent qanun passed by the Acehnese provincial government has been criticized for abrogating women's rights in the religiously conservative province. Under the new bylaws, women can now be fined for wearing clothing judged immodest and arrested for being out alone at night, or on a date without a chaperone.