4 Sharia-Based Laws
The Legal Position of Women and
Children in Banten and West Java^1Euis Nurlaelawati
1 Introduction
Since the fall of Suharto in 1998, calls for the introduction of Sharia
have become more widespread. This does not mean that prior to 1998
no developments in this area occurred. A well-known example is that
of Presidential Instruction No. 1 of 1991, theKompilasi Hukum Islam
(Compilation of Islamic Law), henceforth called Kompilasi, issued in
1991, which is considered to be a step towards further codification
of Islamic law at the national level. Not only at the national level,
but also at the local level there are many ongoing developments in
this field. Indeed, as an effect of the policy of decentralisation that
was implemented in 1999, the ways in which the introduction of
Sharia manifests itself at the local level can vary greatly from region to
region.
Decentralisation did not concern religious affairs and, apart from in
Aceh, which was granted self-government after the Helsinki Agreement
of August 2005, regional administrations are not allowed to issue religious
regulations. As a consequence, the introduction of Sharia at the local level
is limited, in an Islamic sense, to the public sphere and mostly concerns
ritual and morality.² This does not mean, however, that the initiatives
taken are insignificant. An example is the (demand for) curtailment
of the freedom of movement of women under Sharia-based local
regulations by, for instance, requiring them to wear a headscarf (jilbab) in
This is a shortened version of the report submitted to the Islam Research
Programme Jakarta. SeeRegime Change, Democracy and Islam. The Case of
Indonesia. Final Report Islam Research Programme Jakarta (Leiden, 2013).
Arskal Salim, ‘Muslim Politics in Indonesia’s Democratisations: The Religious
Majority and The Rights of Minority in the Post-New Order Era’, in R.H. McLeod
and A. MacIntyre (eds.),Indonesia: Democracy and the Promise of Good
Governance(Singapore: Southeast Asian Studies, 2007).