Couple fears sex ban will turn them into criminals

TANGERANG: After 13 years of happily unmarried life that has brought them three children, one middle-aged Indonesian couple is worried.

Their relationship is neither legal nor official, and a controversial new penal code to be discussed in Indonesia’s parliament could make them criminals by banning consensual sex outside marriage. Although President Joko Widodo ordered parliament to delay a vote on the legal changes last month after street protests, Indonesians who could be affected are increasingly worried.

“If the government brings up the unofficial marriage issue again, it will be a problem and will burden our minds,” said the husband, who works as a porter at a clothes market. Both he and his wife declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue in the world’s most populous Muslimmajority country, where conservatism has been on the rise.

The proposed revisions have raised fears in the tourism industry of the impact of a ban on extra-marital sex, and Australia has even issued a preemptive warning to citizens. But millions of Indonesians living in unofficial relationships could be more likely targets.

Unmarried couples who “live together as a husband and wife” could face six months in jail or a maximum fine of 10 million rupiah (21,500 baht), the equivalent of three months’ salary for many Indonesians.

Unmarried couples are often in “Siri” marriages that are accepted from a religious perspective but have never been registered.

“The lawmakers assess it as adultery,” said the wife, who works as a domestic helper. “[But] this is my responsibility to my God, in the eyes of the religion, or according to the religion, we have been officially united together.”