Indonesia bans sex outside of marriage

Jakarta: Indonesia’s parliament has approved a new criminal code that will make sex outside of marriage punishable by up to a year in prison.
It is part of a raft of changes that critics say erode democratic freedoms, BBC reported.
The new criminal code will not come into effect for another three years and also includes a ban on insulting the president and expressing views that run counter to state ideology.
Small groups held protests outside the parliament in Jakarta this week.
The code — which will apply to both Indonesians and foreigners — includes several “morality” laws and makes it illegal for unmarried couples to live together and have sex, the BBC reported.
Rights groups say this disproportionately affects women, LGBT people and ethnic minorities in the country.
A person’s partner or parents can report them for the offence of having sex outside of marriage. Adultery will also be an offence for which people can be jailed.
The new code also tightens blasphemy laws and affects areas of public life. Rights groups say this amount to a crackdown on political expression and association.
New defamation articles make it illegal for people to insult the president or express opinions against the national ideology, the report said.
The group’s Jakarta-based researcher, Andreas Harsano, said there were millions of couples in Indonesia without marriage certificates “especially among Indigenous peoples or Muslims in rural areas” who had married in specific religious ceremonies.
“These people will be theoretically breaking the law as living together could be punished up to six months in prison,” he told the BBC.