Indonesia may well be the world's largest Muslim country, but only Aceh has the legal right to apply Islamic law in full. Aceh was granted the right as part of the search for a political solution to the long-running separatist conflict in the fiercely independent and deeply religious region. Yet Aceh's attempts at shariah enforcement have quickly come in for criticism for being heavy handed, and discriminatory against women and the poor.

Presenter/Interviewer: Emily Bourke

Speakers: Hafid Abbas, Director General for the Protection of Human Rights in Indonesia; Tim Lindsey, Indonesian law expert, Melbourne University

Bourke: Even before the Aceh peace settlement... many other areas of Indonesia were taking advantage of post-Suharto regional autonomy laws to pass sharia-inspired rules on a whole range of issues.

These moves have sparked a major debate in Indonesia over how far provincial governments can go with these religiously-based local laws.

Indonesian law expert Professor Tim Lindsey says what began with legislation on health, education and governance is increasingly a crackdown on moral conduct.

Lindsey: This is an ultra conservative, isolated interpretation of Islamic norms that is linked into a revival of Acehnese identity. The Acehnese have been asking for this right to implement the Sharia system which is not just in courts, but in governance more broadly, since the 1940s and 1950s. So this is nothing new but the implementation is extraordinary. This is the single most dramatic and radical attempt to introduce an Islamic polity in south east Asia in the last couple of hundred years.

Bourke: You say that the Acehenese have been asking for this, are there some who are now asking whether it was a good idea to begin with?

Lindsey: Certainly women's groups and women's activists and many women for that matter are becoming aware that the sharia system is extremely limiting for them. It's not just a matter of forcing women to wear head covering it's a matter of moving to exclude them from public space. So we've had women arrested for sexual, or supposed sexual crimes because of the way they dress and behave. We've had attempts to exclude women from public transport. Now, when that happens it basically becomes impossible for women to get to work.

Bourke: Concern is growing that more than 20 other provinces are moving to implement their own versions of Sharia law – which will be in breach of constitutional law. But it appears the central authorities are preparing to strike back.

Hafid Abbas is the Director General for the Protection of Human Rights in Indonesia with the justice ministry. He says all local laws will now have to be brought into line with the national, secular legal code within five years.

Abbas: I would put all these things in a matrix, a kind of agreement, or an MOU between my office and the local districts because since the year 2004 I have established a district committee for human rights action plan implementation and at a national level we have put institutions in full so similarly at province and district levels so they are all my partners to put this agenda as a government agenda and every minute, every hour and every day it is to be monitored what is the progress for this agenda's implementation.

Bourke: While human rights groups are on a mission to harmonise the two legal systems, some remain sceptical. As Indonesian law expert Tim Lindsey explains.

Lindsey: The fact is what's happening now in Indonesia is a proliferation of probably unconstitutional and probably illegal hardline sharia regulations and these can be dealt with in three ways. Either the ministry of home affairs can just strike them out. Secondly, someone could appeal the regulations and take them to the Supreme Court and there is some suggestion that this will happen soon, and thirdly the parliament, could pass a law over-ruling local laws so it's quite easy to do. But the question is political will and the government and parliamentarians are nervous and don't want to touch it. They have to bite the bullet on this because it's becoming an explosive political issue.

Bourke: Hafid Abbas from the Justice Ministry says the political will is growing and there is a genuine desire for Indonesia to be what he calls a shining example of human rights and democracy.

Abbas: This is a new culture of Indonesian democracy can you imagine Indonesia soon after Suharto stepped down we had minus 15 percent of economic growth but now we are expecting to approach six percent now and our income is appproaching 1550, so it's a quantum leap for Indonesia that we would like to prove to the world that through democracy and human rights Indonesia can jump up.