0
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenWomen’s Rights Report:
Discrimination in the Punishment of Women
Contents
Introduction

2

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

8

Republic of Indonesia

23

Islamic Republic of Iran

44

Republic of Iraq

55

Malaysia

66

Independent State of Papua New Guinea

76

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

88

Republic of Yemen

100

July 2018

Human Rights Now is an international human rights NGO based in Tokyo, Japan, with UN
special consultative status. For contact and other information visit our website at hrn.or.jp/eng.
1
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenINTRODUCTION
In many states around the world, women are subject to discriminatory punishment simply
because of their gender. Gender inequality prevents women from fully exercising basic humanrights such as freedom of movement and expression, and it is increasingly recognized as an
impediment to a state‘s economic growth and stability. 1 The vast majority of states haverecognized the importance of gender equality by signing and ratifying the Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and by endorsing it as one of theUnited Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
There are numerous sources of state duties and international standards calling for theelimination of discriminatory punishment of women and violence against women (VAW) in theform of punishment. Central is article 2(g) of the Convention on the Elimination ofDiscrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which calls for states to repeal all national penal
provisions which constitute discrimination against women.2 General Recommendations 19 and
35 by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women interprets
discrimination against women to include VAW, the latter of which emphasizes violence by
public authorities.3 The UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women (UN WGDAW)

1See, e.g., International Monetary Fund, Pursuing Women‘s Economic Empowerment, 31 May 2018, at 5-7,
available at https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Policy-Papers/Issues/2018/05/31/pp053118pursuing-womenseconomic-empowerment.
2
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 Dec. 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13,
19 I.L.M. 33 (1980) entered into force 8 Sept. 1981, available athttps://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/cedaw.pdf
3
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 19: Violenceagainst women, A/47/38, 1992, available athttps://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/1_Global/INT_CEDAW_GEC_3731_E.pdf;
General Recommendation No. 35: Gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No.
19, CEDAW/C/GC/35, 14 July 2017, available athttps://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/1_Global/CEDAW_C_GC_35_8267_E.pdf.
2
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenhas further recommended updating General Recommendation 19 to specifically mention thatlaws or judicial decisions allowing violent punishment (such as stoning or lashing) of women for
adultery or other sexual behavior should be eliminated, that laws which criminally prohibit
adultery are a violation of women‘s human rights and should be repealed, and that laws which
punish women for exercising sexual or reproductive autonomy, such as through prostitution or
termination of pregnancy, should be eliminated.4
Article 3(h) of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of VAW calls for equality for
women in the enjoyment of ―the right not to be subjected to torture, or other cruel, inhuman ordegrading treatment or punishment.‖5 The Beijing Platform of Action also notes concern with
VAW by police, prison, and security officials, and it recommends that they and judicial officials
take measures to avoid VAW in enforcement practices, receive training to avoid VAW in theperformance of their duties, and are punished if found engaging in VAW.6
A number of UN bodies have also called for the elimination of specific forms ofpunishment against women, such as the aforementioned UN WGDAW‘s call to states to repeal
laws criminalizing adultery 7 and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR) Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking,which emphasizes that trafficked persons must not be prosecuted for activities involved as a
4

Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, Inputs on the draft update toGeneral Recommendation 19: accelerating elimination of gender-based violence against women(CEDAW/C/GC/19/Add.1 of 28 July 2016), 31 Oct. 2016, at 3, available athttps://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CEDAW/GR19/WGDAW.pdf (citing
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WG/AdulteryasaCriminalOffenceViolatesWomenHR.pdf).
5
Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, A/RES/22/2263, 7 Nov. 1967, at art. 3(h),available at http://www.un-documents.net/a22r2263.htm.
6
The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing Platform for Action, September 1995, at paras
121, 124(g), (n), (o), available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/violence.htm.
7
Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, Adultery as a criminal offence
violates women‘s human rights, October 2012, available athttps://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WG/AdulteryasaCriminalOffenceViolatesWomenHR.pdf.
3
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenconsequence of their trafficking. 8 The Working Group on Trafficking in Persons specificallymentioned this prohibition in the context of calling for the decriminalization and end ofprosecutions of trafficked women working in the sex industry.9
A number of UN mandates, including the Special Rapporteur on violence against women,
its causes and consequences, have issued mission reports on specific state visits which havereported on discriminatory punishment of women in that state, a number of which are cited in thechapters below for Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Of special note is the 2016 reportby Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Juan Mendez to the Human Rights Council on gender perspectives on his mandate, which
include numerous recommendations on eliminating and preventing penal and related practices
discriminatory to women.10 All of these sources leave no doubt that a duty of states to eliminate
discriminatory punishment of women is well established in international human rights law.
Turning to the content this report, it examines discriminatory practices in the punishmentof women in eight states varied by region and culture, consisting of Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran,Iraq, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. These states were selected forseveral reasons. While discrimination against women exists in all societies, the states in thisreport have histories of discrimination in state action against women. Most of them regularly
rank as among the worst states in the world for gender equality according to organizations such

8

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights
and Human Trafficking, 2002, available at https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Traffickingen.pdf.
9Working Group on Trafficking in Persons, Non-punishment and non-prosecution of victims of trafficking inpersons: administrative and judicial approaches to offences committed in the process of such trafficking, 9December 2009, at para. 6, available athttps://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/organized_crime/2010_CTOC_COP_WG4/WG4_2010_4_E.pdf.
10
Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment, A/HRC/31/57, 5 January 2016, available at
http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/31/57.
4
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenas the World Economic Forum.11 Other states addressed here, such as Afghanistan, have beenhighlighted by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women as statesof ―deep concern‖ because of the discriminatory effects of their legal systems on women. 12
Others have been singled out by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its
causes and consequences as needing substantial reforms to their legal systems ―to address the
structural and systemic inequalities and discrimination that women face.‖13 Each chapter of thisreport focuses on a particular state and begins with a brief introduction to that state‘s relevant
historical and legal background, as well as its international obligations relevant to equal
treatment of women. Each chapter then details major issues of discrimination in the punishmentof women in that state that fall short of international standards, both legal and societal, andfinally offers recommendations.
The report considers multiple forms of punishment, including official punishment as amatter of law, discriminatory practices of officials, and societal punishment which is either
sanctioned or tolerated by the state or where the state has been insufficient in ending thepractices. Examined practices include substantive discrimination, including moral crimes such asadultery, seclusion, and dress requirements, honor killings, sorcery-related crimes, and other

11

World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report, 2017, available athttps://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender-gap-report-2017.
12
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Combined
Initial and Second Periodic Reports of Afghanistan, 30 July 2013, at paras. 21-25, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW/C/AFG/CO/1-2; seealso, e.g., Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Sixth
Periodic Reports of Yemen, 11 May 2009, at paras. 9-20, available at https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/
treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2fC%2fYEM%2fCO%2f6&Lang=en.
13
United Nations Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes
and consequences, Rashida Manjoo (Mission to Papua New Guinea), A/HRC/23/49/Add.2, 18 Mar. 2013, at 19-21;
see also, e.g, Yakin Ertürk, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes andConsequences, Mission to Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Council, Doc A/HRC/11/6/Add.3, 14 Apr. 2009.
5
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womencrimes which disproportionately target women, and procedural discrimination, including by
moral police, informal judicial bodies, and discriminatory practices by police and judges.
Several conclusions can be drawn from surveying these states. In some cases, laws
provide for discriminatory punishment on their face, calling for legal reforms. In many othercases, discriminatory action by state officials arises due to laws and practices which allow or defacto tolerate them applying religious or customary law, often uncodified, either explicitly or
through vagueness. These practices call for more specific reforms which explicitly prevent
discriminatory application of the law and which ensure they are practiced by officials. Similar
issues arise when the national legal system provides for informal judicial bodies like village
councils to decide criminal cases at the local level. Highly decentralized or federalized statesoften have regions which diverge markedly in terms of gender equality from the national level,
as is the case in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Many states also suffer fromunderinvestment in police and criminal justice programs focusing on crimes affecting women.
In every case, there is a pressing need for states to work further to ensure women’sequality is accepted within the mainstream culture, as even where de jure discrimination has
been erased, women cannot achieve full equality without the efforts of society at large.14 It is
our hope that this report will raise greater awareness and understanding of these issues within
the international community, and that it can play a constructive role in bringing equality towomen in criminal and punitive practices in these and similar states.

14

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Women‘s Rights are Human Rights, at 27-29, 43-48,
available at https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/HR-PUB-14-2.pdf.
6
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenGeneral Recommendations
In light of the findings of this report, Human Rights Now offers the following generalrecommendations.

To state governments:States must repeal laws imposing discriminatory punishment on women and eliminate
language in laws, such as vague or undefined terms, which may permit such punishment.

States must prohibit public and private practices and customs which inflict or enablediscriminatory punishment of women and take measures to ensure such prohibitions arewidely understood and enforced.



We urge the governments of states mentioned in this report conduct in depth national
surveys to investigate the status of discriminatory punishment against women and
immediately establish a national policy to end discriminatory laws and prohibit
discriminatory practices if they have not already done so.

To United Nations bodies:We urge United Nations bodies to redouble their efforts to end public and private
discriminatory punishment of women among states within the purviews of theirmandates.

 We recommend that the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against
women in law and in practice have the issue of discriminatory punishment of women
undertaken as a thematic priority.
7
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN
Governmental and Legal System
Afghanistan‘s legal and judicial systems are based on conflicting legal foundations ofsecular constitutional and statutory law, Islamic law (Sharia law), and customary tribal edicts.15
While certain constitutional and statutory protections for women exist, judicial institutions sufferfrom corruption, insecurity, an inadequate legal and regulatory infrastructure, and a lack ofqualified personnel. 16 Systemic deficiencies in the judicial system—including arbitrary
detention, inconsistent and subjective judicial decisions, pervasive corruption, and unfair trials—
drive many Afghans to turn to informal methods of dispute resolution such as jirgas and shuras17
or other customary bodies that apply tribal cultural edicts and Islamic law.18 In 2006, the Special
Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequence noted that ―The multiplicity
of normative systems in Afghanistan favours the power structures intent on oppressing women in
the private sphere and in public life, facilitates their impunity, and presents a significant obstacle

15

International Crisis Group, Reforming Afghanistan‘s Broken Judiciary, Asia Report No. 195, 17 Nov. 2010, at 2,
available at https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/afghanistan/reforming-afghanistan-s-broken-judiciary.
16
Afghanistan, Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Afghanistan, A/HRC/WG.6/5/AFG/2, 9 Mar.
2009, at 7.
17
Jirgas and shuras are traditional mechanisms of dispute resolution used throughout communities in Afghanistan.
Adult male councils resolve tribal conflicts in accordance with tribal edicts, and women are excluded fromparticipation. Jirgas and shuras are perceived as less corrupt and more trusted by Afghans than formal state courts.
However, some studies have shown that jirgas and shuras can be influenced by local strongmen and warlords,
leading to biased and unfair outcomes. See Ali Wardak, State and Non-state Justice Systems in Afghanistan: theNeed for Synergy, 32:5 U. PA. J. INT‘L L. 1305, 1315-1319 (2011), available athttps://www.law.upenn.edu/journals/jil/articles/volume32/issue5/Wardak32U.Pa.J.Int'lL.1305 (2011).pdf.
18
Informal methods of dispute resolution refer to practices that fall outside of codified Afghan law but are widelyused. The tribal edicts in use are not codified, but they have become common practice after a long history ofcustomary usage. Formal methods of dispute resolution refer to methods such as courts of law that utilize codified
Afghan law, which can include rulings that are also featured in Islamic law, depending on the situation. Even though
informal methods of dispute resolution are outside of the judicial system, their decisions are substantively equal invalue to formal judicial decisions due to the weakness of the formal court system.
8
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

for women and defenders of women‘s rights.‖ 19 Application of Islamic law is not limited tousage by jirgas and shuras. Article 130 of the 2004 Constitution20 grants courts the discretion to
apply Islamic law when the Constitution and other laws are silent on a matter. 21 The procedures
and decisions of these bodies, however, often violate both Afghan and international human rights
law.22The shortcomings of the formal Afghan judicial system have a disproportionately
negative effect on women and girls, as tribal codes and Islamic law are often interpreted bycommunity authorities in ways that discriminate against them.23 In addition, judges reportedly
often have a biased attitude toward women who seek justice through the formal judicial system,
and continue to refer cases involving violence against women to the informal methods of jirgas
and shuras.24
Following a five-year drafting process in partnership with the United Nations Assistance
Mission in Afghanistan, the government promulgated a new penal code which entered into effect19

Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes andconsequences, Yakin Ertürk - Addendum (mission to Afghanistan), E/CN.4/2006/61/Add.5, 15 Feb. 2006, at 80,
available at https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G06/108/06/PDF/G0610806.pdf.
20―In cases under consideration, the courts shall apply provisions of this Constitution as well as other laws. If there
is no provision in the Constitution or other laws about a case, the courts shall, in pursuance of Hanafi jurisprudence,
and, within the limits set by this Constitution, rule in a way that attains justice in the best manner.‖ THE 2004
CONSTITUTION OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, art. 130.
21
Nadjma Yassari and Mohammad Hamid Saboory, Sharia and National Law in Afghanistan, in SHARIA
INCORPORATED: A COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW OF THE LEGAL SYSTEMS OF TWELVE MUSLIM COUNTRIES IN PAST AND
PRESENT, 274, 298 (Jan M. Otto ed., 2010).
22International Crisis Group, Reforming Afghanistan‘s Broken Judiciary, Asia Report No. 195, 17 Nov. 2010, at 3,
28, available at https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/afghanistan/reforming-afghanistan-s-broken-judiciary;
see also Afghanistan, Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Afghanistan, A/HRC/WG.6/5/AFG/2, 9Mar. 2009, at 6-7.
23
Afghanistan, Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Afghanistan, A/HRC/WG.6/5/AFG/2, 9 Mar.
2009, at 7.
24
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Summary Prepared by the High Commissioner
for Human Rights, A/HRC/WG.6/5/AFG/3, 24 Feb. 2009, at 3 (―There is still persistent prejudice against women
who choose to consult lawyers rather than resort to traditional customs.‖); Committee on the Elimination ofDiscrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Combined Initial and Second Periodic Reports of
Afghanistan, 30 July 2013, at para. 14, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW/C/AFG/CO/1-2.
9
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenon 14 February 2018. 25 While the 2018 Code brings Afghanistan into compliance with its
obligations under numerous treaties, such as the Rome Statute, significant problems remain in
the law‘s application to women.26
In particular, the 2018 Penal Code has created ambiguity regarding the continuing
validity of the Elimination of Violence Against Women (―EVAW‖) Act. Before the new Penal
Code was enacted, Afghanistan possessed 11 different criminal laws, including the EVAW. 27 On
its face, the new law explicitly supersedes these laws. Articles 7 of the new Code provides thatno punishment shall be enforced unless stated in the new law, and article 8 explicitly prohibits
criminalization or punishment of an action not criminalized or punished ―in this law‖.28 This
prima facie applies to the EVAW as well. The Penal Code does not include many of theprovisions which appear in the EVAW; thus, on its face, violent crimes against womencriminalized under EVAW would not continue to be punishable as such.29 After heavy criticisms
were raised about the possibility of EVAW‘s supersession and arguments that articles 7 and 8
were never intended to apply to EVW, only to the other criminal laws, President Ashraf Ghani
promulgated a decree on 3 March 2018 to exclude EVAW from the application of Articles 7 and
8 of the Code, validating its continued legal effect. However, some conservative groups in
Afghanistan have criticized the original validity of the EVAW for being promulgated by
25

PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, 15 May 2017 (unofficial English translation on filewith Human Rights Now).
26
Global Legal Monitor, Library of Congress, Afghanistan: Government Announces New Draft Penal Code, 1 July
2016, available at http://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/afghanistan-government-announces-new-draftpenal-code/.
27
Id.
28
PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, 15 May 2017, arts. 7, 8.
29
UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA Welcomes Afghanistan‘s New Penal Code – Calls for Robust
Framework to Protect Women Against Violence, 22 Feb. 2018, available at https://unama.unmissions.org/unamawelcomes-afghanistan%E2%80%99s-new-penal-code-calls-robust-framework-protect-women-against-violence;
LAW ON ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, 20 July 2009, available at
http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/102060/123253/F2103117289/AFG102060%20Eng.pdf.
10
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenpresidential decree and lacking formal Parliamentary approval (to say nothing of the validity ofthe second presidential decree exempting it from legislative supersession), and they haveasserted that, whatever the case, the law is no longer valid.30 This debate has created ambiguity
about the legal effect of EVAW and whether and how courts will apply it under the new Code.

Human Rights Obligations under International Law
Afghanistan ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW) in March 2003 without reservation. 31 However, Afghanistan has not ratified the
Optional Protocol to CEDAW, which would allow the UN Committee on the Elimination ofDiscrimination Against Women to hear petitions from women who have exhausted national
remedies. 32 Under article 7 of the Constitution, Afghanistan must ―abide by the UN Charter,international treaties and international conventions that Afghanistan has signed, and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.‖33
In addition, Afghanistan is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR), 34 the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(ICESCR),35 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).36 Article 3 of the ICCPR30PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 262, 3 Mar. 2018; UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Injustice and Impunity:
Mediation of Criminal Offences of Violence against Women, May 2018, p. 17, available athttps://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/unama_ohchr_evaw_report_2018_injustice_and_impunity_29_may_
2018.pdf; Torunn Wimpelmann, Adultery, rape, and escaping the house: The protection and policing of female
sexuality in Afghanistan (Working Paper), 2017, at 9, available at https://www.cmi.no/publications/6404-adulteryrape-and-escaping-the-house.
31
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 Dec. 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13,
19 I.L.M. 33 (1980) entered into force 8 Sept. 1981.
32
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art 4, 6
Oct. 1999, 2131 U.N.T.S. 83.
33
AFGHANISTAN CONST., art. 7.
34International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 Dec. 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171.
35
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 Dec. 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3.
36
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 Nov. 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, 28 I.L.M. 1448 (1989).
11
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenrequires its signatories to ensure the equal right of all to enjoy civil and political rights.37 Article
3 of the ICESCR requires its signatories to ensure the equal right of all to enjoy economic,
social, and cultural rights.38 Article 2 of the CRC obliges its signatories to ensure that all children
are protected against all forms of discrimination, including that of gender. 39 However,Afghanistan made a general reservation to the CRC, stating that it ―reserves the right to express
reservations on all provisions of the Convention that are incompatible with the laws of Islamic
Sharia and the local legislation in effect.‖40 The reservation is problematic as it is overly-broadand generally international law does not allow local or national legislation to excuse treaty
violations.41

Zina (Adultery)
Zina refers to sexual intercourse outside of marriage, also known as adultery. The crimeof zina is codified by article 643 of the Penal Code and is punishable by two to seven years inprison.42 While the criminalization of zina applies to both men and women, it is discriminatory in
different aspects. Firstly, polygamy in Afghanistan allows men to have multiple sexual partners
as wives and thereby avoid being falsely accused of unfaithfulness or adultery. 43 In addition,according to Afghan legislation and jurisprudence, it is easier for men than for women to divorce
37

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 Dec. 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171 & 1057 U.N.T.S. 407.
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 Dec. 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3.
39
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 Nov. 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, 28 I.L.M. 1448 (1989).
40
Id.; United Nations Treaty Collection, Convention on the Rights of the Child: Declarations and Reservations,available at https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-11&chapter=4&clang=_en.
41
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 23 May 1969, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331, entered into force 27 Jan. 1980.
42
PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, 15 May 2017, arts. 643-644. In the new Penal Code,zina by an unmarried person is punishable to a maximum of two years in prison. If the perpetrator is married, thepunishment is between 2 and 5 years. If the perpetrator is a close family member (mahram in the term of Islamic
jurisprudence), a teacher, superior, or someone else with influence or dominance over the other party, they can besentenced to up to 7 years in prison.
43
CIVIL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, art. 86.
1238

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenin case of an unhappy marriage, and thus easier for men to avoid committing and being punishedfor zina.44 These conditions create a discriminatory criminal punishment regime regarding zina,
where men are not punished for polygamy while women would be, and the difference in divorce
laws allows men to avoid punishment for zina more easily than women.45 Different institutions
such as the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women have urged Afghanistan to ―abolish laws,
including those related to zina, that discriminate against women and girls and lead to theirimprisonment and cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment‖ 46 and to ―ensure the adequate
implementation of the Anti-Human Trafficking and Abduction Law (2008) in order to ensurethat victims of trafficking are not prosecuted for having committed zina.‖47
The second way in which the Afghan prohibition of adultery is discriminatory is the factthat zina may, in practice, include non-consensual sex, although new legislation qualifies this.
The issue is that crime of zina may apply in a discriminatory fashion to women who have been
raped, as a woman reporting rape is admitting to sex outside marriage.48 As a legal matter, article

44

Mina Habib, Divorce Rights Still Elusive for Afghan Women, INSTITUTE FOR WAR AND PEACE REPORTING (15Sept. 2015), available at https://iwpr.net/global-voices/divorce-rights-still-elusive-afghan-women.
45
Id.
46
UN General Assembly, Situation of Women and Girls in Afghanistan, 6 Oct. 2003, A/58/421, at 11, available athttps://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N03/556/46/PDF/N0355646.pdf?OpenElement; Frances Raday,
Background Information on the Statement issued by the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women,
OHCHR, available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WG/BackgroundNoteAdultery2.doc.
47
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Combined
Initial and Second Periodic Reports of Afghanistan, 30 July 2013, at para. 27(b), available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW/C/AFG/CO/1-2.
48
Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes andconsequences, Yakin Ertürk - Addendum (mission to Afghanistan), Feb. 2006, E/CN.4/2006/61/Add.5, available athttps://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G06/108/06/PDF/G0610806.pdf. Although the Elimination ofViolence Against Women Law, passed into law in 2009, represents some progress with regard to prosecution ofviolence against women by establishing rape as a crime, it fails to clearly define rape or the element of coercion,
which would be necessary to set it apart from zina. As a consequence, when rape is prosecuted, it is mostly done soas the crime of zina or, less often, as kidnapping. Akhilesh Pillalamarri, Afghanistan Finally Prosecutes Rapes, THE
DIPLOMAT, 1 Nov. 2014, available at http://thediplomat.com/2014/11/afghanistan-finally-prosecutes-rapes/.
13
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women642 of the new penal code specifically prohibits prosecution of victims of rape. However, byusing the phrase ―the victim shall not be prosecuted‖, article 642 may still allow prosecution of
women unable to prove the rape offense, and explicit protection should also be offered to womenreporting rape.

Zina Cases and Legal PrecedentThis manner of discriminatory rape prosecution existed under the previous penal code,
which creates concern about practice under the new code. Under the previous 1976 Penal Code,in 2011, a rape victim was sentenced to two and a half years in juvenile prison for zina. The
court, in considering the victim‘s case, ―warned that women should know that it is unsafe forthem to go out at night and said the victim must not have screamed very much or someone would
have heard her,‖ 49 even though the court found that two men had taken the victim to an
abandoned building and ―sexually assaulted‖ her.50 Another example is of a woman who was
raped in 2009, resulting in both her and her attacker‘s conviction for zina. The woman was
originally sentenced to two years‘ imprisonment but, on appeal, her sentence was increased to 12
years. Her attacker, by contrast, successfully appealed his case, resulting in a reduction of his
original 12-year sentence to seven years. In December 2011, President Karzai pardoned thewoman after she had served two years of her sentence; however, the difference in their sentences
after appeal highlights the punishment‘s discriminatory character. While it is too early todetermine how the 2018 Penal Code will be interpreted and implemented, convictions such as

49―I Had to Run Away‖ – The Imprisonment of Women and Girls for ―Moral Crimes‖ in Afghanistan, Human
Rights Watch, Mar. 2012, 5, available athttps://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/afghanistan0312webwcover_0.pdf.
50
Id. at 68-70.
14
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenthese may still be possible under the new code‘s text, as the courts‘ language and actions suggest
they did not view the women as ―victims‖.
Besides these legal impediments, the prevalence of conservative and patriarchal views
results in women being seen as dishonoring their family when subjected to sexual violence.51
Thus, zina victims also face additional punishment by societal reprisal and ostracization, such as
being seen as unfit for marriage, facing imprisonment, or being subject to extrajudicial killing.52

Honor Killings
Honor killings constitute a serious problem in Afghanistan. Between 2011 and 2013, over
240 cases of honor killings were recorded, and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights
Commission has described honor killings as one of the most serious problems of violence against
women.53 This issue was reported several times in 2014 during the Universal Periodic Review ofAfghanistan. 54 A weakness of the Elimination of Violence Against Women Law (EVAW),
assuming it is still valid, is that it does not create a separate offense for honor killings. Instead,
Article 22 provides that that if the beating of a woman results in death, then the offender is to besentenced in accordance with the Penal Code.55 Article 213 of the Penal Code then provides that
it is a mitigating factor for criminal liability if the act is immediately committed ―as a result of51

Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes andconsequences, Yakin Ertürk - Addendum (mission to Afghanistan), E/CN.4/2006/61/Add.5, Feb. 2006, at 19,
available at https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G06/108/06/PDF/G0610806.pdf.
52
United States Department of State, 2015 Human Rights Report: Afghanistan, at 37, available athttps://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2015.
53
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, National Inquiry on Rape and Honor Killing in
Afghanistan Report, available at http://www.aihrc.org.af/en/research-reports/1571/national-inquiry-on-rape-andhonor-killing-in-afghanistan-report-summary.html.
54
Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the UPR - Afghanistan, 4 Apr. 2014, A/HRC/26/4,
available at https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G14/129/52/PDF/G1412952.pdf.
55
LAW ON ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, 20 July 2009, at art. 22(2), available at
http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/102060/123253/F2103117289/AFG102060%20Eng.pdf.
15
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenstrong mental excitement, produced by [an] unlawful and provoking act of [the] victim or a third
person.‖56 Because adultery is an unlawful act under Article 643, an offender could receive a
reduced sentence for an honor killing merely because the victim was engaged in adultery.57 This
would discriminate against women as it suggests that a woman‘s life is less valuable than that ofa man, and the majority of honor killings are against women.58 Part of the historical context isthat under article 398 of the former penal code, a reduced sentence was provided for homicides if
the victim was a spouse or another ―close relation‖ of the offender caught ―in the act ofcommitting adultery or being in the same bed with another.‖ While the new penal code avoids
such a direct textual connection between violence against women by close relations, adultery,
and a reduced sentence, its wording still allows courts to continue to appeal to adultery as a
mitigating factor to crimes against women based on their ―unlawful and provoking acts‖ without
granting women the same allowance.
Even though the jurisdictions of many states, including Western states such as the UnitedStates, recognize that the killing of one‘s spouse immediately after the discovery of adultery canbe considered mitigating circumstances calling for a reduced sentence, there are some importantdifferences between these provisions and Article 213. For instance, this common ―heat of
passion‖ rule only provides mitigation when the victim was the offender‘s spouse, whereas
Article 213 could apply to adultery committed by any person, regardless of their relation to theoffender. 59 For these same reasons, different states and organizations including the Special

56

PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, 15 May 2017, art. 213.
Id., art. 643.
58
The Penal Code could apply equally to men or women, but EVAW applies the Penal Code to female victim cases.
Article 22 states that ―[i]f a person beats a woman‖ resulting in her death, the offender shall be sentenced according
to the Penal Code. In practice, the overwhelming majority of targets of honor killings are women.
59
PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, 15 May 2017, at art. 213.
16
57

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenRapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences 60 at the Afghanistan
Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council urged Afghanistan to repeal Article
398 under the former penal code.61 While the new penal code does not use article 398‘s precise
wording, measures should be taken to ensure that the new article 213 does not permit the former
discriminatory practice of reduced sentences for honor killings to continue.

Baad (Compensation Marriage)
Another form of discriminatory legal punishment is the custom of baad. Baad refers to a
traditional practice of settling disputes by giving away girls as compensation for crimes. 62
Thereby, an innocent girl is punished in lieu of the culprit. These girls are often exposed to crueltreatment, physical violence and humiliation as retribution for the crime that one of her relatives
committed.63 For example, a 12-year-old girl and her younger sister, whose uncle attempted tocommit a murder, were given away in marriage to the victim‘s relatives as compensation. The
two girls were beaten, forced to live with the livestock, and treated like slaves by their in-laws.
When the 12-year-old attempted to flee, she was caught by her husband, who cut off her ears andnose, leaving her bleeding and unconscious, as further punishment.64

60

Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes andconsequences, on her mission to Afghanistan, 12 May 2015, A/HRC/29/27/Add.3, at 73(b), available athttps://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G15/094/90/PDF/G1509490.pdf.
61
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Universal Periodic Review: Afghanistan, 27 Jan. 2014,
available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/Highlights27January2014pm.aspx.
62
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Combined
Initial and Second Periodic Reports of Afghanistan, 30 July 2013, at para. 22, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW/C/AFG/CO/1-2.
63
Alissa Rubin, For Punishment of Elder‘s Misdeeds, Afghan Girl Pays the Price, N.Y. TIMES, 16 Feb. 2012, at
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/world/asia/in-baad-afghan-girls-are-penalized-for-elders-crimes.html.
64
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Harmful Traditional Practices and Implementation of the Law
on Elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan, Dec. 2010, at 13, available athttps://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/harmful_traditional_practices_english.pdf.
17
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

The historical context is that baad was illegal under article 517 of the former 1976
Afghan Penal Code. However, this prohibition applied only to widows and adult women over theage of 18,65 whereas most victims of baad are young girls.66 Moreover, punishment was very
mild, with article 517 establishing a maximum two-year term of imprisonment. In this regard, the
EVAW Act provided some progress in criminalizing baad by penalizing it up to a maximum
sentence of ten years and extending the application to women of any age. 67 However, as
mentioned above, there are issues about the continuing validity of the EVAW Law under the newPenal Code. Because the code does not criminalize baad itself, these ambiguities regarding thecontinued validity of the EVAW Law may mean that perpetrators of baad are not adequately
prosecuted under the current regime.68 More action is needed to ensure that the law protecting
women from baad is comprehensive and clearly established under Afghan law.
There are issues about whether baad may be punishable in the new Penal Code under thecrime of ―trafficking in persons,‖ which is defined as ―dominating [or] transferring… a person to
exploit him/her through… threat or use of power or other form of compulsion, [or] misuse ofvulnerability or necessity.‖69 The crime carries a penalty of up to 10 years or more than 10 years
if the perpetrator is the parent, spouse, or guardian of the trafficked person.70 However, the crimeof trafficking requires the dominating or transfer of a person for the purpose of ―exploitation‖,
which the code defines as ―taking advantage of the victim‖ through, inter alia, buying, selling,
65

PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, 7 Oct. 1976, art. 517(2).
Alissa Rubin, Afghan Girl Pays the Price, THE N.Y. TIMES, 16 Feb. 2012, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/world/asia/in-baad-afghan-girls-are-penalized-for-elders-crimes.html.
67
LAW ON ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, 20 July 2009, art. 25, available at
http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/102060/123253/F2103117289/AFG102060%20Eng.pdf.
68
Torunn Wimpelmann, Adultery, rape, and escaping the house: The protection and policing of female sexuality in
Afghanistan (Working Paper), 2017, at 10, available at https://www.cmi.no/publications/6404-adultery-rape-andescaping-the-house.
69
PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, 15 May 2017, art. 510.
70
Id., art. 511.
18
66

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

sexual exploitation, enslavement, or forcing the girl to do other illegal activities.71 The purposeof baad may be interpreted to not fall into any of these categories, and no explicit mention ismade of baad itself as a form of exploitation, which may make it lack the exploitation element of
the crime of trafficking.
Aside from the ambiguities in the law itself, many barriers to effective implementation
also exist. Many women are illiterate and lack knowledge of the applicable laws and theircorresponding legal rights. 72 Even where women are aware, a lack of access to key services(such as legal and health services and shelters) is a fundamental impediment to women achieving
justice.73 Also, in many areas of Afghanistan, in particular rural and conflict areas, official law
enforcement is weak and the government lacks authority and legitimacy. For these reasons,despite legal reforms through the new Penal Code and the EVAW act, baad is still frequently
practiced in Afghanistan as a discriminatory punishment against women for the crimes ofanother.74 Four years after the adoption of the EVAW act, the CEDAW Committee expressed
concerns regarding ―the persistence of adverse cultural norms, practices and traditions which areharmful to women, such as child marriage, baad (settlement of disputes by giving away girls),
badal (exchange marriages) and forced marriages, including forced marriages of widows.‖75

71

Id., art. 510(3).
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Justice through the Eyes of Afghan Women: Cases of Violence against Women Addressed throughMediation and Court Adjudication, Apr. 2015, at 23, available athttps://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/unama_ohchr_justice_through_eyes_of_afghan_women_15_Apr._2015.pdf.
73
See id. at 18 & 23.
74
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Harmful Traditional Practices and Implementation of the Law
on Elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan, Dec. 2010, at 11, available athttps://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/harmful_traditional_practices_english.pdf.
75Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Combined
Initial and Second Periodic Reports of Afghanistan, 30 July 2013, at para. 27(a), available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW/C/AFG/CO/1-2.
19
72

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Running Away
When the legal, social, and cultural context does not allow women to protect themselves
against violence and harmful actions, they sometimes resort to running away. Unfortunately,
neither the 2018 Penal Code nor the EVAW Law offer protection to women and girls who escapefrom violence.76 Instead, women who flee abusive marriages or leave home without permission
from their husbands or close male relatives are often arrested for offenses like ―home escape‖ or―moral‖ crimes that are not specified as criminal offenses under the Penal Code.77
Although running away is not a crime under Afghan law,78 courts often invoke article
130 of the Constitution, which allows the application of Sharia where other laws are silent, toprosecute women for fleeing their homes.79 In 2010, the Afghan Supreme Court ruled that as
running away, even in circumstances of abuse, ―could cause crimes like adultery and prostitution… it is against Sharia principles, [and] therefore … prohibited and prosecutable based on
discretionary punishment.‖80 Unless a woman can prove she was escaping to a relative‘s houseor an approved institute addressing domestic violence, she is prosecuted for both ―running away‖
and ―attempted zina‖ regardless of her motives for escaping.81 As this is only enforced against

76

Torunn Wimpelmann, Adultery, rape, and escaping the house: The protection and policing of female sexuality in
Afghanistan, 2017, at 9, available at https://www.cmi.no/publications/6404-adultery-rape-and-escaping-the-house.
77
UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Still a Long Way to Go: Implementation of the Law on Elimination ofViolence against Women in Afghanistan, Dec. 2012, at 11, at http://www.refworld.org/docid/50c72e0d2.html.
78
In 2012, the Attorney General issued a directive that running away is not an offense under Afghan law.
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Combined Initialand Second Periodic Reports of Afghanistan, 30 July 2013, at para. 25, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW/C/AFG/CO/1-2.
79
AFGHANISTAN CONST., art. 130.
80
Letter No. 1497/1054 of The Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The statement presumes thatwomen who run away may commit adultery/zina crimes, implying it only applies to females, discriminating women.
UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Still a Long Way to Go: Implementation of the Law on Elimination ofViolence against Women in Afghanistan, Dec. 2012, at 22, at http://www.refworld.org/docid/50c72e0d2.html.
81
The latter is based on a mere assumption that the act of zina could take place, and as such has no legal basis either
in the Penal Code or in Sharia. Still, women in Afghanistan are often charged with the ―intent‖ to commit zina or―pre-emptive‖ zina in the formal judicial system for escaping. Id.
20
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenwomen who face violence and often do not have access to law enforcement institutions or have
any relatives they can trust (as noted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights82), this defense has been viewed as unrealistic by experts.83
The ability of state prosecutors to press criminal charges against women for undefined―moral‖ crimes is symptomatic of the absence of formal standards of statutory interpretation andapplication of law to fact in the Afghan criminal justice system. When issuing decisions, the(predominantly male) Afghan judges often omit any explanation of, for example, how theyweighed evidence or which factual findings led to the decision to convict or acquit. 84 They often
cite irrelevant information, provide limited legal analysis, and sentences are handed down―without any explanation of how aggravating or mitigating factors had been considered inarriving at the sentence imposed.‖85 Such shortcomings are exacerbated by the fact that the Penal
Code provides only general ranges, rather than set terms, for prison sentences, allowing for great
discretion in sentencing.86
As of 31 July 2015, approximately 51 percent of female prisoners were incarcerated for―moral crimes.‖87 In most cases, either (i) men—and sometimes other women—abuse women82

Human Rights Council, Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on situation ofhuman rights in Afghanistan, 28 Jan. 2013, A/HRC/22/37, at 10, available at
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/AF/A-HRC-22-37.pdf
83
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Harmful Traditional Practices and Implementation of the Law
on elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan, Dec. 2010, at 39, available athttps://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/harmful_traditional_practices_english.pdf.
84
Id. at 79.
85
Id. In one case, a court took into consideration a letter from a woman‘s husband complaining of her disobedienceand asking that she be punished.
86
PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, 15 May 2017, arts. 145-147; United Nations
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Harmful Traditional Practices and Implementation of the Law on Elimination ofViolence against Women in Afghanistan, Dec. 2010, at 119, available athttps://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/harmful_traditional_practices_english.pdf.
87
United States Department of State, 2015 Human Rights Report: Afghanistan, at 39, available athttps://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2015&dlid=252957#wrapper.
21
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

with impunity or (ii) women are arrested and imprisoned for ―moral crimes‖, often on no basis
other than the uncorroborated testimony of their abusers.88

Recommendations
1. Afghanistan should accede to the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW and allow the UN
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women to hear petitions fromwomen in Afghanistan who have exhausted national remedies.
2. The Afghan national legislature should amend legal provisions related to zina to ensure
they cannot discriminate against women and lead to their imprisonment or inhumanpunishment or treatment.
3. The legislature should explicitly clarify the continued validity of the EVAW law.
4. The Afghan government should prosecute and hold accountable those who attempt toimpose baad.
5. The President of Afghanistan should issue an administrative decree that ―running away‖
must not be treated as a crime under national law.
6. The Supreme Court of Afghanistan should withdraw the 2010 guidance which
criminalizes running away and replace it with instructions that moral crimes such as
running away do not constitute crimes.

88

Rod Nordland, Moral ‗Crimes‘ Land Afghan Women in Jail, N.Y. TIMES, 28 Mar. 2012, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/world/asia/report-finds-continued-jailing-for-afghan-girls-running-fromabuse.html.
22
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenREPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

Government and Legal System
Located in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is the world‘s largest archipelagic nation. The
country consists of more than thirteen thousand islands and is divided into 31 provinces and acentral government.
The Constitution of Indonesia was adopted in 194589 and has the highest legal authority
in the state.90 The Constitution guarantees certain rights and freedoms including equality andnon-discrimination.91 Specifically, article 27 provides that ―[a]ll citizens shall be equal before thelaw and the government‖ and article 28 states that ―[e]very person shall have the right ofrecognition, protection and certainty of equal treatment before the law.‖ Furthermore, article 28
adds that ―[e]very person shall have the right to be free from discriminatory treatment based on
any grounds whatsoever and shall have the right to protection from such discriminatory
treatment.‖Indonesia also has statutory enshrinement of human rights protection. The government
made a major contribution to Indonesia‘s human rights situation by adopting Law No.39/1999.92
This law expressly stipulates that women‘s rights are human rights 93 and guarantees women‘s

89

THE 1945 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA (unofficial English translation), available
at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/--ilo_aids/documents/legaldocument/wcms_174556.pdf.
90
LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA, NO. 10/2004, ART. 7 §1, available at
http://www.flevin.com/id/lgso/translations/JICA%20Mirror/english/4818_UU_10_2004_e.html.
91
See THE 1945 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA, Chapters X, XA, available at
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---ilo_aids/documents/legaldocument/wcms_174556.pdf.
92
LAW NO. 39 YEAR 1999 – CONCERNING HUMAN RIGHTS, available at
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/population/womenrights/indonesia.women.99.doc.
93
Id. at art. 45.
23
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

equality and non-discrimination.94 Article 50 stipulates that ―[w]omen of full age and/or who aremarried have the authority to take both criminal and civil legal action as individuals,‖ but thearticle reserves that this authority can be ―determined otherwise under religious law.‖95

Overview of Sharia Law in Indonesia
Indonesia is the world‘s largest Muslim state, with approximately 87.2 percent of the
population following Islam.96 As such, the state‘s legal system is complex, composed of nationallaw and Sharia law. 97 In most of Indonesia, Sharia law is limited to civil cases, which are
enforced in Sharia courts of limited jurisdiction, with the exception of the Aceh region. 98 Besides
Aceh, the country adopted ―a unitary national judiciary that applies a uniform body of nationallaw,‖99 and thus, Sharia courts fall under Supreme Court review.100
Aceh has the authority to implement Sharia law formally in the province.101 And since2001 when special autonomy legislation was passed, the province has extended Sharia law toapply to Islamic criminal law.102 This law allows Aceh to be the only province that can adopt
regional bylaws completely derived from Sharia law.103

94

Id. at § 9.
Id. at art. 50.
96
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook – Indonesia, 12 Jan. 2017.
97
See Mark E. Cammack & R. Michael Feener, The Islamic Legal System in Indonesia, 21 PACIFIC RIM LAW &POLICY JOURNAL 13, 29 (2012), available at http://digital.law.washington.edu/dspacelaw/bitstream/handle/1773.1/1091/21PRPLJ013.pdf.
98
Id. at 28, 38.
99
Id. at 20.
100
Id. at 23.
101
Id. at 38; ACT ON THE SPECIAL STATUS OF THE PROVINCE OF ACEH SPECIAL REGION, ACT NO.44 OF 1999, art.
3(2); ACT ON THE SPECIAL AUTONOMY FOR THE PROVINCE OF THE SPECIAL REGION OF ACEH AS THE PROVINCE OF
NANGGROE ACEH DARUSSALAM, ACT NO.18 OF 2001, General Elucidation.
102
International Crisis Group, Islamic Law and Criminal Justice in Aceh, ASIA REPORT NO. 117, 31 July 2006, at 5,
available at http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-eastasia/indonesia/117_islamic_law_and_criminal_justice_in_aceh.ashx; see also Center for Human Rights &Humanitarian Law, Indonesia‘s Aceh Province Adopts Sharia Law in Conflict with Human Rights Standards,
24
95

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenAlthough regional bylaws generally have the lowest legal authority, 104 they are becoming
more influential on peoples‘ lives due to the decentralization of the Indonesian government.105
While Aceh is the only region that has criminal bylaws enforcing Sharia law,106 other regions
have non-Sharia derived bylaws that severely discriminate against women.107 These bylaws will
be discussed further below.
Several new acts of legislation, bylaws, and amendments over the years have continued
to disproportionately punish women. In 2014, the Aceh Parliament approved the Aceh Islamic
Criminal Code, ―Qanun Jinayah‖, which translates to behavior-governing bylaw. 108 This law
mandates that every individual in the province follow Sharia Law.109 Its significance lies in its
effect: the law criminalizes acts like consensual same-sex sexual acts, 110 adultery, 111 intimate
relationships between unmarried people (khalwat), consuming alcohol, and violations of bodyHUMAN RIGHTS BRIEF, 13 Nov. 2012, available at http://hrbrief.org/2012/11/indonesia‘s-aceh-province-adoptssharia-law-in-conflict-with-human-rights-standards (describing criminal activity punishable under Aceh‘s Sharia
law including gambling, homosexuality, and disobeying rules on attire).
103
Id.
104
LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA, NO. 10/2004, available at
http://www.flevin.com/id/lgso/translations/JICA%20Mirror/english/4818_UU_10_2004_e.html.
105
See Mark E. Cammack & R. Michael Feener, The Islamic Legal System in Indonesia, 21 PACIFIC RIM LAW &POLICY JOURNAL 13, 36 (2012), available at http://digital.law.washington.edu/dspacelaw/bitstream/handle/1773.1/1091/21PRPLJ013.pdf.
106
Rishi Iyengar, A Non-Muslim Has Been Punished Under Shari‘a Law in Indonesia for the First Time, TIME, 13
Apr. 2016, available at http://time.com/4291832/indonesia-aceh-christian-muslim-sharia-law-alcohol/ (explainingthat Aceh is the ―only part of the country that enforces sharia law for crimes like adultery, consumption of alcoholand homosexuality).
107
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding observations of the Committee on
the Elimination of Discrimination against Women – Indonesia, CEDAW/C/IDN/CO/6-7, 27 July 2012, at 4,
available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-IDN-CO-6-7.pdf (mentioning thevarious ―severely discriminatory by-laws, including those in the province of Aceh, which restrict women‘s rights inthe conduct of their daily life‖ identified by the National Commission on Violence against Women and the Ministryof Law and Human Rights).
108
Hotli Simanjuntak & Ina Parlina, Aceh Fully Enforces Sharia, THE JAKARTA POST, 7 Feb. 2014, available at
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/02/07/aceh-fully-enforces-sharia.html.
109
Id.
110
Patrick Winn, Gay in Aceh? Brace for 100 Lashes in Front of a Jeering Crowd, PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL,
5 Oct. 2014, available at https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-05/gay-aceh-brace-100-lashes-front-jeering-crowd.
111
Reza Munawir, Indonesia‘s Aceh Province Enacts Islamic Criminal Code, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 24
Oct. 2015, available at http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesias-aceh-province-enacts-islamic-criminal-code20151024-gkhkdm.html.
25
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womencovering rules for Muslim women, including requirements on the hijab and loose-fitting pants,112
and it allows punishments to reach 100 lashes by cane.113 In 2015, one Aceh district enacted abylaw mandating that schools provide instruction to boys and girls separately. 114 In the same
year, the first non-Muslim was punished under the religious law as allowed by the explicit
language of the code,115 stating that non-Muslims violating the law can choose to be subjected to
Sharia Law, but that violations not covered by the national penal code will be tried in Sharia
courts.‖116

Human Rights Obligations under International Law
Indonesia has ratified eight key international human rights treaties, one of which is theConvention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).117
CEDAW is often described as an international bill of rights for women, as it defines the meaningof gender equality and provides ways in which states can achieve it. 118 Indonesia‘s only
reservation concerning CEDAW relates to methods of dispute resolution under article 29.119

112

Hotli Simanjuntak & Ina Parlina, Aceh Fully Enforces Sharia, THE JAKARTA POST, 7 Feb. 2014, available at
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/02/07/aceh-fully-enforces-sharia.html.
113
Patrick Winn, Gay in Aceh? Brace for 100 Lashes in Front of a Jeering Crowd, PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL,
Oct. 5, 2014, available at https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-05/gay-aceh-brace-100-lashes-front-jeering-crowd.
114
Reza Munawir, Indonesia‘s Aceh Province Enacts Islamic Criminal Code, REUTERS, 23 Oct. 2015, available at
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-aceh-law-idUSKCN0SI02H20151024.
115
Rishi Iyengar, A Non-Muslim Has Been Punished Under Shari‘a Law in Indonesia for the First Time, TIME, 13
Apr. 2016, available at http://time.com/4291832/indonesia-aceh-christian-muslim-sharia-law-alcohol/.
116
Indonesia‘s Aceh Province Minorities Alarmed at New Shariah-based Law, HUMAN RIGHTS IN ASEAN – ONLINEPLATFORM, 7 Oct. 2014, available at https://humanrightsinasean.info/article/indonesias-aceh-province-minoritiesalarmed-new-shariah-based-law.html.
117
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 Dec. 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S.
13, 19 I.L.M. 33 (1980) entered into force 8 Sept. 1981. See also http://cedaw-in-action.org/en/indonesia/.
118
United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Introduction: Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women New York, 19 Dec. 1979, available at
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CEDAW.aspx.
119
Indonesia has entered a reservation to the effect that ―[t]he Government of the Republic of Indonesia does notconsider itself bound by the provisions of article 29, paragraph 1 of [CEDAW] and takes the position that any
26
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Additionally, Indonesia is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil andPolitical Rights (ICCPR).120 The practice of public caning is one example of a violation of an
ICCPR provision which has particularly negative effects for women. These canings havecontinued as recently as 2017, when a woman was caned for being in close proximity withsomeone who was not her husband. 121 Caning is a punishment for violating Sharia law inIndonesia and a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment prohibited under article 7 of
the ICCPR.122 Furthermore, caning violates the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment and Punishment (CAT), to which Indonesia is also a stateparty.123 Finally, Indonesia has also ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).124

Sharia Law in Aceh
Sharia Law in Aceh is codified under the Qanun (the Regional Regulation)125 and has
been slowly expanding its mandate ever since.126 In Aceh, Sharia Law now covers all aspects ofdispute relating to the interpretation or application of [CEDAW] may only be submitted to arbitration or to theInternational Court of Justice with the agreement of all the parties to the dispute.‖ United Nations Treaty Collection,
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Declarations & Reservations,
Indonesia, available at https://treaties.un.org/PAGES/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV8&chapter=4&clang=_en.
120
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 Dec. 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171 & 1057 U.N.T.S. 407,
entered into force 23 Mar. 1976.
121
Woman in Indonesia Caned for Kissing and Hugging Outside of Marriage, WOMEN IN THE WORLD, 23 May
2017, available at http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2017/05/23/woman-in-indonesia-caned-for-kissingand-hugging-outside-of-marriage/.
122
See International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, part III, art. 7. See Josua Gantan, Aceh Rape Victim
Caning Prompts Soul Searching in Indonesia, THE JAKARTA GLOBE, 11 May 2014, available at
http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/shariah-question-aceh-caning-controversy/.
123
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 10 Dec. 1984,
1465 U.N.T.S. 86.
124
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 Nov. 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force 2 Sept. 1990.
125
Letter from the Governor of Aceh: Shariah Law in Aceh, 15 Dec. 2015, at 7, available at
http://humas.acehprov.go.id/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SHARIAH-LAW-IN-ACEHh.pdf.
126
Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Indonesia: New Law in Aceh Makes Adultery Punishable by Stoning, 16
Sept. 2009, available at http://www.wluml.org/node/5431.
27
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenMuslim life including what constitutes criminal conduct and acceptable punishments.127 In 2012,
the CEDAW Committee recommended Indonesia to ―[a]mend all discriminatory by-laws
adopted at the provincial level, including those in the province of Aceh and certain districts,
which restrict women‘s rights in the conduct of their daily life, including in social and public life,
impose dress codes and restrict freedom of movement; and review the penal sanctions against
alleged immoral relationships‖128 and to ―Repeal, without delay, the discriminatory laws adopted
in Aceh province that severely discriminate against women in family relations.‖129 The Wilayatul
Hisbah (WH), officers who are often also referred to as the Sharia police, enforce the Qanun andcollaborate with civil police and the public prosecutor‘s office to bring cases to Islamic courts.130
In 2014, the Aceh Legislative Council passed a Sharia-based criminal procedures code, theQanun Acara Jinayat, which applied Islamic rules and punishments to everyone residing in
Aceh.131 Thus, non-Muslims in Aceh charged with offenses under the Qanun can be tried in
Sharia courts.132 Despite public outcry over applying Muslim law to non-Muslims in Aceh, a127

See e.g., Letter from the Governor of Aceh: Shariah Law in Aceh, 15 Dec. 2015, at 4, available at
http://humas.acehprov.go.id/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SHARIAH-LAW-IN-ACEHh.pdf; Hotli Simanjuntak &Ina Parlina, Aceh Fully Enforces Sharia, THE JAKARTA POST, 7 Feb. 2014, available at
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/02/07/aceh-fully-enforces-sharia.html; Unrepresented Nations andPeoples Organization (UNPO), Aceh: Discriminatory Bylaws Violate Human Rights, 26 Oct. 2016, available at
http://unpo.org/article/19592 (explaining that the Qanun punishes immoral behavior that are considered crimes
against Islamic law, but not against Indonesia‘s Criminal Code).
128
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding observations of the Committee on
the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW/C/IDN/CO/6-727, July 2012, at 18, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW/C/IDN/CO/67&Lang=En.
129
Id. at 48.
130
See Mark E. Cammack & R. Michael Feener, The Islamic Legal System in Indonesia, 21 PACIFIC RIM LAW &POLICY JOURNAL 13, 40 (2012), available at http://digital.law.washington.edu/dspacelaw/bitstream/handle/1773.1/1091/21PRPLJ013.pdf#search='indonesia+legal+system+islam'.
131
Simanjuntak, Hotli, Sharia Should Not Apply for Non-Muslims: Aceh Ulema, THE JAKARTA POST, 8 Feb. 2014,
available at http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/02/08/sharia-should-not-apply-non-muslims-acehulema.html.
132
Indonesia‘s Aceh Province Laying Down God‘s Law, THE ECONOMIST, 15 Feb. 2014, available at
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21596577-politics-much-faith-behind-harder-line-laying-down-gods-law.
28
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womennon-Muslim woman was publicly caned for violating sharia law as recent as April 2016. 133
However, the head of Aceh‘s Sharia Department explained that non-Muslims are not forced tofollow Islamic law but instead may choose to submit to the Qanun Jinayat if they wish.134 As thefundamental rationale behind punishing violators through public caning is ―to shame the guilty,
rather than inflict pain,‖ 135 non-Muslims have strong incentive to choose being subjected toIslamic law instead of the national law punishment of jail time, where conditions are
deplorable.136
The Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) reports that the way that Sharia law iscurrently enforced in Aceh has a severely negative impact on women‘s rights.137 For example,
police data in 2014 revealed that women were accused twice as much as men.138

Prohibition of Khalwat (Seclusion with a Man)
After the passing of Qanun 14 in 2003, khalwat became illegal in Aceh.139 Khalwat refers
to a situation where two individuals of the opposite sex who are not married or related by blood

133

Rishi Iyengar, A Non-Muslim Has Been Punished Under Shari‘a Law in Indonesia for the First Time, TIME, 13
Apr. 2016, available at http://time.com/4291832/indonesia-aceh-christian-muslim-sharia-law-alcohol/.
134
Ahmad Pathoni, For the First Time in Indonesia, Non-Muslim Caned Under Islamic Law, L.A. TIMES, 16 Apr.
2016, available at http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-indonesia-caning-20160416-story.html; see also Reza
Munawir, Indonesia‘s Aceh Province Enacts Islamic Criminal Code, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 24 Oct. 2015,
available at http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesias-aceh-province-enacts-islamic-criminal-code-20151024gkhkdm.html.
135
Reza Munawir, Indonesia‘s Aceh Province Enacts Islamic Criminal Code, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 24
Oct. 2015, available at http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesias-aceh-province-enacts-islamic-criminal-code20151024-gkhkdm.html.
136
Ahmad Pathoni, For the First Time in Indonesia, Non-Muslim Caned Under Islamic Law, LA TIMES, 16 Apr.
2016, available at http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-indonesia-caning-20160416-story.html (explaining thatthe non-Muslim charged with violating Sharia law chose public caning as her punishment instead of jail time
because ―prison conditions are bad and there‘s little welfare there‖).
137
Anastasia Ika, Activists Say Sharia Law Perpetuates Violence Against Women in Aceh, INDONESIA EXPAT, 20
Aug. 2016, available at http://indonesiaexpat.biz/featured/activists-say-sharia-law-perpetuates-violence-againstwomen-in-aceh/.
138
Id.
29
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenare found alone together in an isolated place. 140 One of the biggest problems with Qanun
14/2003 is its use of overly broad language, which facilitates arbitrary enforcement practices,many of which severely violate women‘s rights. Specifically, article 2 provides that thedefinition‘s scope includes ―all actions, activities, and circumstances that could lead to thecommission of zina.‖ 141 Thus, although many people believe that the Islamic khalwat law
criminalizes only adultery, in practice, the police have applied the law to a broad spectrum of
circumstances solely at their own discretion.142 Aceh‘s Sharia police have arrested people fordoing a range of activity without any evidence of sexual intimacy, from riding a motorcycle
together to talking in a private location.143 As such, there need not be any proof of the intent tocommit zina as the ―simple physical proximity [is] indicative of an intent to commit zina.‖144
Furthermore, while a large number of people are detained, only a small proportion of those areconvicted of the crime; this is because local communities are often allowed to take control of139

Mark Cammack, The Punishment of Islamic Sex Crimes in a Modern Legal System: The Islamic Qanun of Aceh,
Indonesia, 45 SOUTHWESTERN LAW REVIEW 595, 597 (2016), available at
http://www.swlaw.edu/pdfs/lr/45_3cammack.
140
Id. at 612 (providing the Qanun‘s definition of ―khalwat‖ as the ―proximity in a secluded place of two or morelegally responsible adults of the opposite sex who are not prohibited because of kinship from marrying and are notmarried to each other‖).
141
Id. (citing the Qanun on Khalwat [―Improper Covert Association‖], Qanun No. 14 of 2003, art. 2).
142
See id. at 613 (describing khalwat as being ―punishable as a ‗preventative‘ or ‗preemptive‘ measure‘‖ to reducethe commission of zina ―based on the Islamic legal maxim that ‗a command to perform or refrain from some act
includes a prohibition against [any and all] actions leading to commission of that act‘‖).
143
See e.g., Yenni Kwok, Gang Rape then Caning: Welcome to Aceh‘s Bizarre Moral Crusade, TIME, 8 May 2014
(noting that a student was raped by police after being pulled over for riding a motorbike with her boyfriend),
available at http://time.com/91873/aceh-sharia-law-islam-rape-kelantan-brunei/; Regina Wang, Indonesia City to
Prohibit Women Passengers from Straddling Motorcycles, TIME, 7 Jan. 2013, available at
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/07/indonesia-city-to-prohibit-women-from-straddling-behind-male-motorists/(reporting that the mayor of Lhokseumawe in Aceh created the prohibition of straddling motorcycles and bicycles
when given a ride to ―save women from things that will cause them to violate Shariah law‖); Ed Adamczyk,
Unmarried Indonesian Couple Caned for Being Affectionate, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, 31 Dec. 2015,(reporting on a couple accused of khalwat after being found alone in a room), available at
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/12/31/Unmarried-Indonesian-couple-caned-for-beingaffectionate/6231451567080/goo.
144
Mark Cammack, The Punishment of Islamic Sex Crimes in a Modern Legal System: The Islamic Qanun of Aceh,
Indonesia, 45 SOUTHWESTERN LAW REVIEW 595, 613 (2016), available at
http://www.swlaw.edu/pdfs/lr/45_3cammack.
30
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenmeting out punishment.145 The legal punishment for this crime consists of ―no less than three andno more than nine strokes with a cane and/or a fine of between Rp. 2,500,000 and Rp.
10,000,000,‖ which is equivalent to about $36,700 and $145,800 in U.S. dollars.146 The two main
rationales for the punishment of caning are its shaming and deterrent effects.147 In 2013, thosepunishments were condemned by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:
The Committee regrets the use of corporal punishment in the penal system, particularly in
Aceh province, where the Acehnese Criminal Law (Qanun Jinayah), inter alia, provides
for penalties that violate article 7 of the Covenant, such as flogging, for offences
against . . . the qanun khalwat (prohibiting a man and a woman from being alone in aquiet place) . . . . The Committee also regrets that the execution of these sentences by
sharia police (Wilayatul Hisbah) disproportionately affects women (arts. 2, 3, 7 and
26).148

Public Shaming and Stigma
Public shaming through caning or parading of the accused, in particular, produces a
special type of harm for women. In Indonesian society, women are seen as ―delicate creatures‖that must be ―honored‖ and ―saved‖ from immorality. 149 Thus, when they are punished forviolating morality laws, women suffer a deeper, more prolonged social disapproval that issometimes irreversible.150 An attorney advocating for women‘s rights under Sharia law explained

145

R. MICHAEL FEENER, SHARI‘A AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ISLAMIC LAW INCONTEMPORARY ACEH, INDONESIA, 175 (Oxford University Press, 1st Ed. 2013) (noting that most khalwat offenses
are ―settled outside of the formal structures of Aceh‘s Shari‘a Courts‖).
146
Mark Cammack, The Punishment of Islamic Sex Crimes in a Modern Legal System: The Islamic Qanun of Aceh,
Indonesia, 45 SOUTHWESTERN LAW REVIEW 595 (2016), at n.138, available at
http://www.swlaw.edu/pdfs/lr/45_3cammack.
147
R. MICHAEL FEENER, SHARI‘A AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ISLAMIC LAW INCONTEMPORARY ACEH, INDONESIA (Oxford University Press, 1st Ed. 2013), at 133.
148
Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the initial report of Indonesia, 21 Aug. 2013,
CCPR/C/IDN/CO/1, at 15, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR/C/IDN/CO/1&Lang=En.
149
Regina Wang, Indonesia City to Prohibit Women Passengers from Straddling Motorcycles, TIME, 7 Jan. 2013, at
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/07/indonesia-city-to-prohibit-women-from-straddling-behind-male-motorists/.
150
See Ismira Lutfia, Aceh Teenage Suicide Puts Focus on Sexist Laws, JAKARTA GLOBE, 15 Sep. 2012, available at
http://jakartaglobe.id/archive/aceh-teenage-suicide-puts-focus-on-sexist-laws/ (discussing the shame that follows
31
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

the situation as follows: ―the worst kind of punishment for women is the social stigma, evenexcommunication they receive from their communities. The caning hurts them for only one or
two days but the condemnation is something they will face for the rest of their lives.‖ 151
Furthermore, women involved in sexual crimes, like rape and khalwat, suffer from common
discriminatory views that women are in some way responsible for the transgression. 152 For
instance, one panel of judges and the alleged rapist‘s attorney inquired into a victim‘s dress
during trial as to insinuate her culpability in the rape.153 And in 2011, the Jakarta governor at thetime admonished women for wearing short skirts in public because such behavior indicated thatthey desired a sexual reaction from men.154
As mentioned above, stigma and community pressure resulting from insensitive
enforcement, arrest, and discriminatory punishment can have serious consequences. In 2012 ateenage girl was driven to commit suicide following a public broadcast of her alleged moral
crime.155 The police arrested her at a concert on the grounds of prostitution, and in the followingdays her situation became public knowledge and she committed suicide allegedly as a result of
the social stigma and guilt she felt for shaming her family.156 Another young woman from Aceh
who was found guilty of khalwat explained ―[t]he social punishment is more terrifying than thewomen accused of immorality and the reported cases of suicide as a result); see also Aceh Laws Discriminate
Against Women, INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL INFORMATION NETWORKS (IRIN), June 2010, available at
http://www.irinnews.org/report/89383/indonesia-aceh-laws-discriminate-against-women (describing the common
consequence of ―flee[ing] their villages because of the shame they have brought upon their families‖).
151
Indonesian Province Turns Up Sharia Law After Devastating Tsunami, PBS, 19 Aug. 2014, available at
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/indonesian-province-turns-sharia-law-devastating-tsunami/.
152
Dewanti A. Wardhani, Rape Victims ‗Blamed‘ in Indonesian Culture, THE JAKARTA POST, 8 Aug. 2014,
available at http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/08/rape-victims-blamed-indonesian-culture.html.
153
Id.
154
Id.
155
Ismira Lutfia, Aceh Teenage Suicide Puts Focus on Sexist Laws, JAKARTA GLOBE, 15 Sept. 2012, available at
http://jakartaglobe.id/archive/aceh-teenage-suicide-puts-focus-on-sexist-laws/.
156
Id.
32
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenexecution by the court‖ and ―the hardest thing is to be seen as a cheap available woman.‖ 157
Thus, the women suffer additional punishment in the form of public shaming by the authorities
who publicize their actions against the women.
In 2008, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment estimated that this social exclusion ―can equally amount to inhuman anddegrading treatment‖158 and that expressed concerns thatwomen are disproportionally affected by corporal punishment provided for by the Aceh
Criminal Code, which is based on Sharia law.... Moreover, the fact that thesepunishments are carried out in public generates stigmatization and social sanctioning
lasting beyond the execution of the punishment, as women sentenced to such public
punishments are labelled as immoral by their husbands, families and communities.159

Sharia Police Actions and Misconduct
These effects are furthered by the Sharia police‘s often discriminatory and violent law
enforcement practices. One egregious example is the case of Nita, a 20-year-old woman who wasarrested and detained overnight for riding on a motorcycle with her boyfriend on an isolatedroad. 160 During her detainment, she was aggressively interrogated and raped by three police
officers.161 While two of her rapists were placed on trial, the third has not been apprehended. 162
Unfortunately, rape is not the only example of humiliation specific to women during thecourse of detention. The commonality in these arrests and interrogations, however, is violence
157

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Women in Islam-Feminist Orientations and Strategies for the 21st Century, 2009, at 19,
available at http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/akademie/berlin/06745-20100412.pdf.
158
Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment, A/HRC/7/3/Add.7, 10 Mar. 2008, at 46, available at
http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/HRC/7/3/Add.7.
159
Id.
160
Aceh Laws Discriminate Against Women, INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL INFORMATION NETWORKS (IRIN), June
2010, available at http://www.irinnews.org/report/89383/indonesia-aceh-laws-discriminate-against-women.
161
Id.
162
Id.; Policing Morality Abuses in the Application of Sharia in Aceh, Indonesia, Human Rights Watch, 30 Nov.
2010, available at https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/indonesia1210WebVersionToPost.pdf.
33
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

and shame. 163 Sharia police officials ―impose their own punishments, including physicalpunishments, payment of a penalty to the village, being forced to walk around the village in a
type of shaming ritual, or being doused with sewer water.‖164 Other times, the police demand thatthe parents marry their children caught engaging in khalwat165 or force female detainees to takevirginity exams to prove their innocence.166 The virginity test is particularly problematic because
it not only violates a woman‘s bodily integrity, but it also constitutes a form of discriminatory
treatment of women in violation of the Indonesian Constitution and CEDAW.167 In 2008, theCommittee against Torture expressed its concern thatthe enforcement of [local regulations] is under the authority of a ―morality police‖, theWilayatul Hisbah, which exercises an undefined jurisdiction and whose supervision by
public State institutions is unclear.... In addition, it is reported that the punishments
meted out by this policing body have a disproportionate impact on women (arts. 2 and
16).168
Note that such tests are not only prevalent for detainees, but also women who wish to become
police officers.169

163

National Commission on Violence Against Women, Violence against Women and Islam: Dispelling Stereotypes
and Telling Truth, A View from Indonesia, presented on 4 Feb. 2016, at 5, available at
http://www.lse.ac.uk/WomenPeaceSecurity/pdf/2016/4FebRiriAli.pdf (stating that cases of khalwat arrests andinterrogations conducted by Shariah police were ―often violent, by way of shouting, slapping, and humiliating‖).
164
Policing Morality Abuses in the Application of Sharia in Aceh, Indonesia, Human Rights Watch, 30 Nov. 2010,https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/indonesia1210WebVersionToPost.pdf.
165
Tim Lindsey & Helen Pausacker, RELIGION, LAW AND INTOLERANCE IN INDONESIA, 340 (Routledge, 2016).
166
Andreas Harsono, Human Rights are Under Attack in Post-Tsunami Indonesia, THE GUARDIAN, 27 Dec. 2013,
available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/27/human-rights-are-under-attack-in-posttsunami-indonesia (explaining that the dress requirements ―impose far more onerous restrictions on women,
requiring them to cover their hair with the hijab headscarf in public and forbidding them from wearing bodyhugging clothing‖).
167
See Joe Cochrane, ‗Virginity Test‘ Stokes Indonesia Debate, THE N.Y. TIMES, 11 Dec. 2014, available athttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/world/asia/for-police-career-in-indonesia-some-women-must-first-passvirginity-test.html (noting that ―similar tests are not carried out for men‖, ―men are not even asked about theirvirginity‖, and that a female police recruit ―may get fewer points if her hymen is not intact‖).
168
Committee Against Torture, Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture - Indonesia, 2 July 2008,
CAT/C/IDN/CO/2, at 15, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CAT/C/IDN/CO/2.
169
Sarah Kaplan, Indonesia‘s Crudely Invasive ‗Virginity Tests‘ for Female Military Recruits, THE WASHINGTON
POST, 15 May 2015, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/15/indonesia34
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenAlthough Sharia police themselves patrol the streets to find immoral conduct, Sharia law
encourages community members to enforce rules as well.170 Discriminatory enforcement is justas pervasive in this informal type of policing, which consists of community surveillance andvigilantism.171 Moreover, Sharia policemen themselves encourage community members to findand report possible violations. 172 The public, however, ―should not act directly, but report
offences to the sharia police.‖ 173 Despite this directive, ―vigilantes and overzealous officials‖
have been reported to have ―abused‖ their roles. Vigilantism has become a common method tocontrol sexuality and prevent khalwat in Aceh,174 and individuals are even more motivated totake direct action against khalwat violators because such perpetrators often go unpunished.175

Community Enforcement and JusticeOften community members may deliver punishment themselves, but then the accused isfurther subject to additional punishment by the police and courts.176 For example, when eight

slammed-for-using-virginity-tests-on-female-recruits/?utm_term=.28138fe41e91; see also Josephine McDermott,
Why Does Indonesia Demand that female Military Recruits are Virgins? BBC NEWS, 19 May 2015, available at
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32748248.
170
Indonesia‘s Islamic Laws are ‗Abusive‘, BBC NEWS, 1 Dec. 2010, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/worldasia-pacific-11883781.
171
Sebastian Strangio, The Heavy Hand of Religious Police in Aceh, AL-JAZEERA, 21 Dec. 2014, available at
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/heavy-hand-religious-police-aceh-2014122071758539966.html.
172
David Kloos, In the Name of Syariah? Vigilante Violence, Territoriality, and Moral Authority in Aceh, Indonesia,
98, Indonesia 1, 3 (2014) (describing local authorities encouraging community policing either explicitly or
implicitly), available at http://www.academia.edu/26608881/In_the_Name_of_Syariah_Vigilante_
Violence_Territoriality_and_Moral_Authority_in_Aceh_Indonesia.
173
Michael Bachelard, Aceh Woman, Gang-Raped by Vigilantes for Alleged Adultery, Now to be Flogged, SYDNEY
MORNING HERALD, 6 May 2014, available at http://www.smh.com.au/world/aceh-woman-gangraped-by-vigilantesfor-alleged-adultery-now-to-be-flogged-20140506-zr5x3.html.
174
Tim Lindsey & Helen Pausacker, RELIGION, LAW AND INTOLERANCE IN INDONESIA, at 340 (Routledge, 2016)(commenting on the increased prevalence of direct action taken by villagers against offenders).
175
Marie Dhumieres, Young and In Love in Indonesia? THE INDEPENDENT, 21 May 2014, available at
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/young-and-in-love-in-indonesia-beware-the-sharia-police-arewatching-9405776.html.
176
See e.g., Hotli Simanjuntak, Raped Woman Could Face Cane, THE JAKARTA POST, 8 May 2014 (noting that akhalwat case that ended with community members raping the female would be ―divided into two stages,‖ consisting35
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

men entered the home of a young woman and found her with a married man, they violently gangraped her, beat the man, and poured sewage on them both.177 After the two were turned over tothe police, the Sharia police did not show any leniency and sentenced the rape victim to publiccaning for the alleged adultery.178 Effectively, the accused transgressors were violently punishedtwice for allegedly committing one crime.
This community enforcement practice is promoted by both the authorities and the law.
First, local government officials generally call on the public to ―look out for themselves and theirfamilies to prevent any violations of sharia.‖179 As for the legal procedures dealing with khalwat
offenses, these cases are usually ―turned over to community leaders to be ‗settled by [adat, or]local custom.‘‖ 180 This idea of ―village justice‖ includes lectures from village elders, forced
marriage, being drenched in sewage water, receiving physical blows, ―and [being] subjected tovarious forms of traumatic public humiliation‖ and ―various forms of physical and emotional
abuse.‖ 181 Essentially, this deference to community-level resolutions sanctions individual
villages and villagers to identify, apprehend, and punish the transgressors. The government
promoting this environment fosters further enforcement of khalwat against women as a needed
protection for community morals and values.182

of first the rape and then the khalwat), available at http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/05/08/raped-womancould-face-cane.html.
177
Michael Winter, Indonesian Woman Gang-Raped, Faces Caning for Adultery, THE WASHINGTON POST, 8 May
2014, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/indonesian-woman-gang-raped-faces-caningfor-adultery/2014/05/08/45e81380-d6dc-11e3-8f7d-7786660fff7c_story.html?utm_term=.265ed4f38165.
178
Id.
179
Id.
180
R. Michael Feener, SHARI‘A AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ISLAMIC LAW INCONTEMPORARY ACEH, INDONESIA, at 175 (Oxford University Press, 1st Ed. 2013).
181
Id. at 175-76.
182
Id.
36
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

The case of Rosmiati illustrates the arbitrariness of some community accusations.183 One
early evening, a woman named Rosmiati went to her male friend‘s house to deliver somebooks.184 After staying for 20 minutes, despite the fact Rosmiati and her friend were both fully
clothed and were not shown to have violated any statute,185 community members accused her of
seclusion and she was arrested and detained by the police as punishment. 186 Further, somecommunities implement arbitrary standards such as a curfew time after which any unmarried andunrelated man and woman found together is prima facie evidence of seclusion.187
Community-based enforcement and punishment practices often violate due process andimpose unequal and arbitrary penalties such as forced marriages, arbitrary fines, and village
expulsion.188 Forced marriages violate CEDAW article 16(1)(b), which requires that states allow
women to ―enter into marriage only with their free and full consent.‖189 Furthermore, many of
the women apprehended were teenagers around the age of 17, which may violate articles 3 and
12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 190 which state, respectively, that ―the bestinterests of a child shall be a primary consideration‖ in ―all actions concerning children‖ and thatthe child has the right to ―express [her] views freely in all matters that affect [her],‖ which should
include the decision to marry.191

183

Policing Morality Abuses in the Application of Sharia in Aceh, Indonesia, Human Rights Watch, 30 Nov. 2010,
available at https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/indonesia1210WebVersionToPost.pdf.
184
Id.
185
Id.
186
Id.
187
Id.
188
Id.
189
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 16(1)(b), 18 Dec. 1979, 1249
U.N.T.S. 13, 19 I.L.M. 33 (1980) entered into force 8 Sept. 1981.
190
A child is defined as a person under the age of 18. See CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD, 20 Nov.
1989, arts. 3 & 12, available at http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx.
191
Id.
37
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Moreover, arbitrary enforcement practices and discriminatory punishments would violate
article 2(d) of CEDAW, which states that the state must ―ensure that public authorities andinstitutions shall act in conformity with [the obligation] to refrain from engaging in any act orpractice of discrimination against women.‖192 Because women are often singled out in khalwat
crimes and then subject to violent punishment or heavier social stigmatization, the khalwat laws
promote discrimination against women in violation of CEDAW.

Dress Requirements
In Aceh, the local government has also enacted laws dictating dress requirements.193 The
Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concerns regarding such requirements forstudents in 2014: ―The Committee is deeply concerned about repressive government actions
against the freedom of religion of children belonging to religious minorities..., in particular: ...
(c) Explicitly requiring non-Muslims to follow Sharia law in Aceh or as indicated by the State
party, social pressure on non-Muslim students to wear Islamic dress at school.‖194 According to
Qanun No. 11/2002, women must wear a headscarf and are prohibited from wearing tight clothes
that reveal their body shape in public spaces.195 In some areas, the local qanun forbids womenfrom wearing pants, presumably for their more suggestive nature than long amorphous skirts.

192

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 2(d), 18 Dec. 1979, 1249
U.N.T.S. 13, 19 I.L.M. 33 (1980) entered into force 8 Sept. 1981.
193
Women Living Under Muslim Laws, New Regulation Forbidding the Wearing of ‗Tight Clothing‘ by Women
May be Open to Abuse, 7 June 2010, available at http://www.wluml.org/node/6380; see also Hotli Simanjuntak,
Moral Bylaws Thrive, Get in the Way of Tourism in Aceh, THE JAKARTA POST, 28 Mar. 2016, available at
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/03/28/moral-bylaws-thrive-get-way-tourism-aceh.html.
194
Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on the combined third and fourth periodic
reports of Indonesia, 10 July 2014, CRC/C/IDN/CO/3-4, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/IDN/CO/3-4.
195
See e.g., Hotli Simanjuntak, Aceh mulls sharia for non-Muslim, THE JAKARTA POST, 6 Feb. 2014, available at
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/02/06/aceh-mulls-sharia-non-muslims.html.
38
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Someone who breaks these requirements is made to immediately come into conformity withvarying levels of force. On their face, these laws prescribing dress are gender neutral because
they require both men and women to wear Islamic attire; however, Islamic attire is gendered andthus places a heavier burden on women than men.196 Anyone who breaks these laws is subject tocaning, and because these laws are stricter on regulating women‘s apparel, these restrictions leadto a discriminatory impact on women.197
Furthermore, enforcement standards for women, which include police patrols, warnings,
and nine lashes if warned three times, are often vague and arbitrary as officers interpret the law
differently. 198 These unclear expectations make it difficult for women to choose appropriate
attire that would avoid Sharia police attention and punishment. This ambiguity also allows for defacto discrimination of women to the extent it allows law enforcement to arbitrarily target
women more than men.199
Lesbian and transgender women are especially affected by the dress code. They are
required to dress according to their prescribed gender;200 but even when they do wear clothing

196

Andreas Harsono, Human Rights are Under Attack in Post-Tsunami Indonesia, THE GUARDIAN, 27 Dec. 2013,
available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/27/human-rights-are-under-attack-in-posttsunami-indonesia.
197
Women Living under Muslim Laws, West Aceh, Indonesia: New regulation forbidding the wearing of 'tightclothing‘ by women may be open to abuse, available at http://www.wluml.org/node/6380; Andreas Harsono, Human
Rights are Under Attack in Post-Tsunami Indonesia, THE GUARDIAN, 27 Dec. 2013, available athttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/27/human-rights-are-under-attack-in-post-tsunamiindonesia.
198
Women Living under Muslim Laws, West Aceh, Indonesia: New regulation forbidding the wearing of 'tightclothing‘ by women may be open to abuse, available at http://www.wluml.org/node/6380 (commenting that Sharia
police in Banda Aceh specifically look out for tight jeans); see e.g., Hotli Simanjuntak, Aceh mulls sharia for nonMuslim, THE JAKARTA POST, 6 Feb. 2014, available at http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/02/06/aceh-mullssharia-non-muslims.html (noting that some areas go as far as forbidding women from wearing pants).
199
Marjaana Jauhola, POST-TSUNAMI RECONSTRUCTION IN INDONESIA, 40 (Routledge 2013).
200
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, The Relationship between Homophobia, Transphobia,
and Women‘s Access to Justice for the Forthcoming CEDAW General Recommendation on Women‘s Access toJustice, OHCHR, at n.32, 5 Feb. 2013, available at
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CEDAW/AccesstoJustice/IGLHRC.pdf.
39
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

that satisfies the strict requirements of Islamic law, penalties are enforced on lesbians who do notlook ―feminine enough‖ and on transgender women who ―act[] like women.‖201 Lesbian women
who break this law risk punishment by fines, jail time, or canings up to 100 lashes, whiletransgender women face being forced to assume the clothing of their sex at birth.202 Thus, thislaw also discriminates against women on the basis of biology and sex, inconsistent with article 1of CEDAW203 and article 28 of the Indonesian Constitution, which prescribes the freedom of
every individual to ―develop him/herself‖ and ―to live and to defend his/her life andexistence.‖204

Regional Bylaws in other Parts of Indonesia
Regional bylaws, known as perdas, are the lowest level in the country‘s legal
hierarchy. 205 However, following Indonesia‘s political decentralization, increased regional
autonomy meant increased force of regional bylaws. 206 For the period of 2009 to 2015, theIndonesian National Commission on Violence Against Women (komnas perempuan) reported
that there were at least 389 discriminatory local regulations targeting women and minorities.207

201

Id. at 8.
Ayunda Nurvitasari, Transgender Community Demands Legal Protection, available at http://magdalene.co/news1103-transgender-community-demands-legal-protection.html.
203
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 1, 18 Dec. 1979, 1249
U.N.T.S. 13, 19 I.L.M. 33 (1980) entered into force 8 Sept. 1981 (defining discrimination against women).
204
THE 1945 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA, arts. 28(a), (c), available at
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/--ilo_aids/documents/legaldocument/wcms_174556.pdf.
205
LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA, NO. 10/2004, art. 7 §1, available at
http://www.flevin.com/id/lgso/translations/JICA%20Mirror/english/4818_UU_10_2004_e.html.
206
See Mark E. Cammack & R. Michael Feener, The Islamic Legal System in Indonesia, 21 PACIFIC RIM LAW &POLICY JOURNAL 13, 36 (2012), available at http://digital.law.washington.edu/dspacelaw/bitstream/handle/1773.1/1091/21PRPLJ013.pdf.
207
Time to Act on Discriminatory Local Regulations, INDONESIA AT MELBOURNE, 14 June 2016, available at
http://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/time-to-act-on-discriminatory-local-regulations/.
40
202

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

These were put into place in at least 141 cities across 30 provinces.208 This was an increase fromthe 282 discriminatory regional bylaws the commission reported as of August 2012.209
Some of these bylaws (ninety-six reported in the August 2012 statistics) impose criminal
sanctions on women by regulating acts like prostitution and pornography,210 and a major problem
with these regulations is the ambiguous language used. For instance, article 4 of the 2006 Perda
of Tangerang on the Prohibition of Prostitution (hereinafter ―Perda of Tangerang‖) states thatanyone suspected of being a prostitute is prohibited from loitering on public roads, in parks, athotels, etc.211 This vague language leads to multiple interpretations over what proof is required toarrest someone for prostitution, which leaves room for arbitrary or mistaken arrests.212 With noclear guidelines for authorities, ―any woman, on account of her dress or behavior could bearrested, even punished based [solely] on suspicion.‖213 The National Commission on Violenceagainst Women‘s investigation on the enforcement of the Perda of Tangerang revealed at least
30 cases of wrongful arrests. 214 Furthermore, perdas facilitate the criminalization of women
under the pretext of religion and public morality.215 As such, these laws are particularly applied

208

Nurfika Osman, Violence Against Women on the Rise, THE JAKARTA POST, 8 Mar. 2014, available at
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/03/08/violence-against-women-rise.html.
209
Johnson, Constance, Indonesia: Commission Finds Many Laws that Discriminate Against Women, Law Libraryof Congress, 19 Sept. 2012, available at http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?disp3_l205403336_text.
210
Id.
211
Arskal Salim, The Shari‘ah Bylaws and Human Rights in Indonesia, 15(1) INDONESIA JOURNAL FOR ISLAMICSTUDIES 1, 23 (2008), available at http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/studia-islamika/article/viewFile/536/425.
212
Id. at 18 (explaining how problematic this regulation is because it ―arbitrarily put[s] a label on women who aregoing out at night as prostitutes without valid evidence‖).
213
National Commission on Violence Against Women, Violence against Women and Islam: Dispelling Stereotypes
and Telling Truth, A View from Indonesia, at 4, presented on 4 Feb. 2016, available at
http://www.lse.ac.uk/WomenPeaceSecurity/pdf/2016/4FebRiriAli.pdf.
214
Id.
215
NURSYAHBANI KATJASUNGKANA & SASKIA E. WIERINGA, THE FUTURE OF ASIAN FEMINISMS: CONFRONTINGFUNDAMENTALISMS, CONFLICTS AND NEO-LIBERALISM, 335 (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012).
41
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenin more religious areas where women‘s rights violations are already prevalent.216 Although someNGOs, such as LBH APIK Jakarta, have filed for judicial review of the Perda of Tangerang, theSupreme Court has rejected to review this and similar perdas. 217 On the surface, the Court
provided a legal reason, namely a statute of limitations argument, but the reasoning is specious
and indicates a politicization of religion.

Discriminatory Laws
In recent years, Indonesia has made some progress in promoting women‘s rights, such asenactments of laws to protect against human trafficking in 2015.218 However, Indonesia still has
around 389 laws that are discriminatory against women on both local and national levels. 219
Many of these laws impose punishments that specifically burden women. For example curfews
are imposed on women, associated with the assumption of illicit behavior of women out at night,
which restrict their mobility and ability to work late shifts.220

216

See National Commission on Violence Against Women, Violence against Women and Islam: Dispelling
Stereotypes and Telling Truth, A View from Indonesia, at 4, presented on 4 Feb. 2016, available at
http://www.lse.ac.uk/WomenPeaceSecurity/pdf/2016/4FebRiriAli.pdf.
217
Constitutional Court lets local governments off the leash, INDONESIA AT MELBOURNE, 4 July 2017, available at
http://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/constitutional-court-lets-local-governments-off-the-leash/.
218
LAW NO. 21/2007; International Organization for Migration, Guidelines for Law Enforcement and the Protectionof Victims of Trafficking in Handling Trafficking in Persons Cases, 2009, at 15; see generally, Department of State,2016 Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2016, available athttps://www.state.gov/documents/organization/258876.pdf.
219
Time to Act on Discriminatory Local Regulations, INDONESIA AT MELBOURNE, 14 June 2016, available at
http://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/time-to-act-on-discriminatory-local-regulations/.
220
Tim Lindsey & Helen Pausacker, RELIGION, LAW AND INTOLERANCE IN INDONESIA (Routledge, 2016)(describing the discriminatory impact the Tangerang Perda No. 5 of 2006 on the Prohibition of Prostitution has on
women); see also National Commission on Violence Against Women, Violence against Women and Islam:
Dispelling Stereotypes and Telling Truth, A View from Indonesia, at 4, presented on 4 Feb. 2016, available at
http://www.lse.ac.uk/WomenPeaceSecurity/pdf/2016/4FebRiriAli.pdf.
42
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenRecommendations
Indonesia and the special autonomous region of Aceh should take measures to limit
restrictions on women‘s rights and freedoms. The Government of the Special Autonomous
region of Aceh, in particular, should adopt the following measures:
1. Repeal the crime of khalwat, and do not enforce the current law based on unclear,ambiguous, or arbitrary standards.
2. Take effective measures to minimize the social stigma attached to women for moral
violations.
3. Prevent local laws from promoting community-centered enforcement and punishments forthe crime of khalwat and other moral violations.
4.

Amend the Criminal Code to specifically designate what constitutes appropriate Islamic
dress code for women. Alternatively, the legislation may be amended to describe
inappropriate dress. Regardless of the specific wording, the law must be revised toprovide clarity and guidance for women to reduce the number of arbitrary arrests.

Regional governments should:
5. Repeal all dress-related legislation that requires people to wear sex-appropriate clothingin order to limit the harassment of transgendered individuals.
6.

Amend broadly written perdas and promote a uniform and narrow definition of thespecified crime. The Supreme Court should review the regional perdas that arechallenged by NGOs and proactively review other perdas that use broad language and arebeing implemented in a way that unduly burdens women.
43
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Government and Legal System
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (the Iranian Constitution) creates agovernance structure that combines theocratic and representative democratic elements. The
Iranian Constitution institutes a representative democratic government. Article 6 mandates thatthe government should be administered based on public opinions through elections, 221 while
article 3 imposes a duty on the government to secure the rights of all citizens and provide legal
protection for all in addition to equality before the law. 222 It also provides for three branches ofgovernment: a national legislature called the Islamic Consultative Assembly, which is
empowered to enact laws;223 an executive branch with the president as chief executive;224 and a
judiciary that is responsible for the resolution of disputes.225
However, the Iranian Constitution also superimposes a religious regime onto thisdemocratic ordering. According to article 1, the Iranian government is to be an ―Islamic
Republic‖ with endorsement coming from the people‘s ―longstanding belief in the sovereignty oftruth and Qur‘anic justice.‖226 Though Iranian citizens are to enjoy equal protection and humanrights, they may only do so ―in conformity with Islamic criteria.‖227 The Islamic Consultative
Assembly is barred from enacting laws contrary to Islamic principles, a Guardian Council ischarged with determining violations, and the judiciary may not issue decisions in conflict with

221

CONSTITUTION OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN (1979).
Id. at art. 3.
223
Id. at art. 71.
224
Id. at art. 113.
225
Id. at art. 156.
226
Id. at art. 1.
227
Id. at art. 20.
44
222

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Islamic law or norms. While the Iranian Constitution provides some surface features of a liberal
democratic structure, in practice religious law operates as the highest authority of the state.
In addition to being the controlling principle of governance, Islamic law serves as the
backbone of Iran‘s criminal justice system. The Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of
Iran (hereinafter ―Penal Code‖) consists of crimes and punishments of hadd (plural: hudud),qisas, diyya (plural: diyat), and ta‘zir, all of which are based on Islamic principles.228 Hadd refers
to punishment fixed in the Quran and the hadith for crimes against God, including theft, illicit
sexual relations, making unproven accusations of illicit sexual relations, drinking intoxicants,
apostasy, and highway robbery.229 Qisas and diyya refer to ways by which murder, bodily harm,or property damage may be punished. Qisas means retribution, where the nearest relative of amurdered party may take the life of the killer with court approval. 230 Diyya means compensation,
where the perpetrator of a crime may pay a sum to the victim or the victim‘s nearest relatives toavoid retribution.231 Ta‘zir refers to lesser crimes of a similar nature to hadd for which specificpunishments have not been fixed by the Quran and are left to judicial discretion.232 The Penal
Code itself defines certain crimes and punishments, but only in limited cases, and in absence ofcodified law, judges are mandated to ―deliver [their] judgment on the basis of authoritative
Islamic sources.‖ 233 This effectively means that Islamic law remains predominant in Iran‘scriminal justice system.

228

ISLAMIC PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN (2013) at book 1, art. 14, available at
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/iranian-codes/1000000455-english-translation-of-books1-and-2-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code.html.
229
OISO Hadd (2017), available at http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e757.
230
OISO, Qisas, (2017), available at http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1931.
231
Nesrine Malik, Paralysis or Blood Money? Skewed Justice in Saudi Arabia, THE GUARDIAN, 5 Apr. 2013,
available at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/05/sharia-law-diyya-saudi.
232
OISO, Tazir (2017), available at http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e2363.
233
CONSTITUTION OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN (1979), art. 167.
45
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Human Rights Obligations under International Law
Iran has not yet ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women (CEDAW) as of April 2018, 234 but it has ratified numerous
international human rights treaties relevant to women‘s rights, including the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 235 the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),236 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of theChild (CRC).237 Article 3 of the ICCPR requires its signatories to ensure the equal right of all toenjoy civil and political rights.238 Article 3 of the ICESCR requires its signatories to ensure theequal right of all to enjoy economic, social, and cultural rights. Article 2 of the CRC obliges its
signatories to ensure that all children are protected against all forms of discrimination, includingthat of gender. Upon ratifying the CRC, Iran stated that it would reserve the right not to apply
any portion of the CRC that is incompatible with Islamic Laws.239 On the other hand, Iran has notmade any reservation or declaration on the ICCPR and ICESCR. 240 However, since the twoconventions were ratified before the current government came into place and article 2 of thecurrent Iranian Constitution provides that the Islamic Republic is a system based on belief inGod, the incorporation of both conventions is likely still subject to the bounds set by Islamic law.
234

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 Dec. 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13,
19 I.L.M. 33 (1980), entered into force 8 Sept. 1981.
235
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 Dec. 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171 & 1057 U.N.T.S. 407,
entered into force 23 Mar. 1976.
236
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 Dec. 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into
force 3 Jan. 1976.
237
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 Nov. 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force 2 Sept. 1990.
238
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 3, 16 Dec. 1966 999 U.N.T.S. 171 & 1057 U.N.T.S.
407, entered into force 23 Mar. 1976.
239―Convention on the Rights of the Child: Declarations and Reservations, Iran‖, UNTS, available athttps://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-11&chapter=4&clang=_en.
240―International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Declarations and Reservations, Iran‖, UNTS, available athttps://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-4&chapter=4&clang=_en; United Nations
Treaty Collection, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Declarations and Reservations,available at https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-3&chapter=4&clang=_en.
46
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Adultery
Adultery is prosecuted in Iran in a biased way against women. Under the Penal Code,adultery is considered a crime against God and is punishable by stoning to death provided bothparties have consummated their marriages.241 This severe charge differs based on gender in two
respects. First, women are at a higher risk of being convicted of and punished for adultery. As
men are allowed to have four permanent wives and multiple temporary ones in Iran,242 they could
refute adultery charges by claiming that they were or are temporarily married to the woman withwhom they were found committing adultery.243 Women, on the other hand, have no recourse tothis defense, and as a result face punishment for adultery at a greater rate than men.244 While this
distinction makes no difference when two married parties are concerned, as men can only take on
unmarried women as temporary wives, men will be more readily found innocent than womenwhen a married party is caught cheating on his or her partner with an unmarried party. In 2005,
the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women reported that out of 397 women in Evin
Prison, 200 were sentenced for moral crimes or sexually oriented offenses of which she
attributed to as ―the gender-biases in the attitudinal and institutional structure of the country.‖245

241

ISLAMIC PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN (2013), arts. 225-226, available at
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/iranian-codes/1000000455-english-translation-of-books1-and-2-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code.html. In Farsi, the first sentence stipulates that a defendant accused ofadultery will be put to death and a judge will decide on the manner of capital punishment. (Stoning is one option.) It
further states that the adultery has to be seen, not merely assumed. When assumed, the punishment is 100 lashes.
242
Temporary marriages are for a specific period of time where a man and woman may have lawful sexual relations
but the wife is not entitled to the husband‘s support and cannot inherit from him. See Iran HRDC, Gender Inequality
and Discrimination: The Case of Iranian Women, 8 Mar. 2013, available at http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/
publications/legal-commentary/1000000261-gender-inequality-and-discrimination-the-case-of-iranian-women.html.
243
UK Home Office, Country Policy and Information Note: Iran, at para. 5.1.1-5.1.4, available athttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/565819/CPIN-Iran-Adulterers-v2November-2016.pdf.
244
Id., at para. 2.3.4.
245
Economic and Social Council, Integration of the Human Rights of Women and a Gender Perspective: Violence
Against Women. Mission to the Islamic Republic of Iran, E/CN.4/2006/61/Add.3, 27 Jan. 2006, available at47
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Second, the severity of the punishment for adultery differs between genders. A man
convicted of adultery would be customarily buried in a ditch up to near his waist whereas awoman convicted of the same would be buried up to near her chest.246 Since persons are sparedfrom stoning if they are able to escape the ditch, the implication is that in some cases women
would be stoned to death whereas men would not, even though the circumstances surrounding
their convictions may be the same.247
Despite Parliament initially omitting stoning from the Penal Code in a 2013 review of thelaw, it was subsequently reinserted by the Guardian Council, a body of theologians and juriststhat must approve bills based on consistency with the constitution and Islamic law.248 As a result,although it hasn‘t been carried out in recent years, under article 225 of the Penal Code, adultery
continues to be an offense punishable by stoning to death, and where stoning is not possible,
those convicted face the death penalty by hanging or one hundred lashes. 249 While official
statistics regarding the use of stoning as a punishment for adultery are not available, there was atleast one stoning sentence in 2015 for a woman convicted of adultery.250

http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/aadel-collection/10028-integration-of-the-human-rightsof-women-and-a-gender-perspective-violence-against-women.html.
246
AFP, Iran Amends Law on Stoning for Adultery, THE TELEGRAPH, 30 May 2013 available at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/10089270/Iran-amends-law-on-stoning-foradultery.html.
247
Id.
248
Emma Batha, Factbox: Stoning - Where Does it Happen?, THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION, 29 Sept. 2013,
available at http://news.trust.org//item/20130927165059-w9g0i; Iran: Guardian Council, BBC, available at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/iran_power/html/guardian_council.stm.
249
ISLAMIC PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN (2013), arts. 225-226, available at
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/iranian-codes/1000000455-english-translation-of-books1-and-2-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code.html.
250
UN Secretary General, Report of the Secretary-General on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, Human Rights
Council, 31st session, U.N. Doc A/HRC/31/26, 3 Mar. 2016, at para. 17.
48
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Discriminatory Punishment of Women and Age
Iran‘s criminal justice system also discriminates against gender based on age. Article 146of the Penal Code stipulates that children who have not reached legal maturity have no criminal
responsibility.251 However, article 147 differentiates between girls and boys by setting the age ofmaturity for girls at 9 lunar years and for boys at 15 lunar years.252 In practice, legal punishment
is divided into 3 categories: (1) children under 9 years old, (2) children between 9 and 15 years
old, and (3) juveniles between 15 and 18 years old. For children under 9 years old, no criminal
responsibility follows irrespective of gender. For juveniles between 15 and 18 years old, criminal
liability attaches irrespective of gender. Children between 9 and 15 years old who commit ta‘zir
crimes will also be subject to correctional measures irrespective of gender.253 For girls between 9
and 15 years old who commit crimes punishable by hudud and qisas, girls may be subject to suchpunishments because they have reached the age of maturity.254 However, if a boy commits thesame crimes, he will only be subject to minor correctional measures given that he has not yet
reached the age of maturity. This distinction punishes girls more harshly and directly contravenes
the ICCPR, which provides that children should not be discriminated against based on gender. 255
In 2016, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran251

ISLAMIC PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN (2013), art. 146, available at
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/iranian-codes/1000000455-english-translation-of-books1-and-2-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code.html.
252
Id., art. 147 (9 lunar years is roughly equivalent to 8 years and 9 months and 15 lunar years is roughly equivalent
to 14 years and 7 months.).
253
ISLAMIC PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN (2013), art. 148, available at
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/iranian-codes/1000000455-english-translation-of-books1-and-2-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code.html.
254
Mohammad H. Nayyeri, Criminal Responsibility of Children in the Islamic Republic of Iran‘s New Penal Code,Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, 22 Feb. 2012, available at
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/publications/legal-commentary/1000000054-criminal-responsibility-of-children-inthe-islamic-republic-of-irans-new-penal-code.html.
255
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 24, 16 Dec. 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171 & 1057 U.N.T.S.
407, entered into force 23 Mar. 1976.
49
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenexpressed concerns that ―the Islamic Penal Code retains the death penalty for boys of at least 15
lunar years of age and girls of at least 9 lunar years for qisas (―retribution in kind‖) or hudud
crimes, such as homicide, adultery or sodomy (arts. 146-147).‖256

Blood Money
Women‘s lives are treated as less valuable than those of men under the Penal Code.
Article 550 provides that the diyya, colloquially known as ―blood money‖, for murdering awoman is half that for murdering a man. According to Islamic law, a victim‘s next of kin isallowed to take the life of the offender (known as qisa or retribution in kind) if the diyya for thevictim is the same or higher as what the offender‘s diyya would be; otherwise, the victim‘s nextof kin must pay the difference to retaliate. Thus, if a man is killed by a woman, the man‘s next ofkin may retaliate simply with the court‘s approval. However, if a woman is killed by a man, thewoman‘s next of kin must pay half of a man‘s diyya to the perpetrator, in addition to receiving
court‘s approval, to retaliate. Article 545 attempts to remedy this inequality by providing that thedifference in such homicide cases shall be paid from a government fund.
As for non-fatal bodily injuries, article 560 provides that the diyya is equal for men andwomen up to one-third of the full diyya; any compensation for women beyond one-third is to be
decreased by half. For example, a man who was injured would receive the full diyya while awoman with the same injury would receive just half, and this difference is not made up by the
aforementioned fund. This may lead to absurd outcomes whereby a woman who deserves 30

256

Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republicof Iran, 26 May 2016, A/HRC/31/69, at 19, available at https://documents-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G16/105/97/PDF/G1610597.pdf.
50
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenpercent of the full diyya would get just that, a woman who deserves 50 percent of the full diyya
would receive only 25 percent, whereas the diyya for men undergoes no reductions.
In 2012, the Special rapporteur on the situation of human rights explained that ―therevised Islamic Penal Code continues to contravene international law.... For example, awoman‘s testimony in a court of law is regarded as half that of a man‘s and, despite
amendments that now establish a monetary fund to equalize the diya (blood money) for men andwomen in the case of qisas (retribution in kind), a woman‘s life is still valued as half that ofa man‘s.‖257

Gender Discrimination and Legal Immunity
The Penal Code provides certain legal immunities for men that do not also apply towomen. Article 299 provides that the punishment of qisa (retribution in kind) will not be
imposed on the perpetrator if the perpetrator is the father or the paternal grandfather of thevictim. This means that no male paternal ascendant can be subject to qisa for killing his
descendant. Though paternal ascendants may still be subject to other forms of punishment, thisexception allows them to engage in what is often known as honor killing to punish family
members perceived to have brought dishonor upon an entire family.
In 2016 the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concerns that ―article 301
combined with article 612, of the Islamic Penal Code of 2013, provides for lighter punishment if
a murder is committed by a father or paternal grandfather of the victim (‗crimes committed in the

257

General Assembly, Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, A/67/369, 13 Sept. 2012, at 41,
available at https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N12/508/13/PDF/N1250813.pdf.
51
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

name of so-called honour‘).‖ 258 Notably, the Penal Code also expressly condones a specificcategory of honor killing by sanctioning a husband to kill his wife and her sexual partner if hesees them committing zina (sexual intercourse) consentingly. In practice, this means women andgirls may be killed by their father, grandfather, or husband with impunity. The absence of official
statistics on both honor killing incidents and conviction rates of perpetrators makes it difficult toevaluate the prevalence of honor killings in Iran. However, according to police statistics,
between March 2011 and March 2012, there were a total of 340 honor killings against women.

Dress Requirements
The Penal Code punishes women for violating the official dress code; however, thesesame punishments do not apply to men. Article 638 stipulates that it is a crime against public
morality for women to appear in public places without wearing an Islamic hijab, which generally
refers to a headscarf that covers the head and chest. The punishment for this offense is ten days
to two months‘ imprisonment or a fine of between 500 to 50,000 rials.259 Because of this law,
women have been harassed and threatened by law enforcement officials, including the morality
police, undercover agents and the Basij, a paramilitary volunteer militia that follows the order of
the Supreme Leader.260 However, there is no similar rule regarding how men must dress in the
Penal Code. Regarding this matter, the Committee on the Rights of the Child explained that ―the258Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on the combined third and fourth periodic
reports of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 14 Mar. 2016, CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4.
259
ISLAMIC PENAL CODE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN (2013), art. 638, available at
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/iranian-codes/1000000455-english-translation-of-books1-and-2-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code.html.
260
Denise Hassanzade, Why So Many Iranians Have Come to Hate the Hijab, THE GUARDIAN, 28 Apr. 2016
available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/28/iranian-women-hate-hijab-tehranbureau; Marketa
Hulpachova, Hijab: A Woman‘s Rite of Passage in Iran, THE GUARDIAN, 19 Dec. 2013 available athttps://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2013/dec/19/iran-hijab-islamic-veil.
52
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenhijab requirement for girls as young as 7 years of age irrespective of their religious affiliation
constitutes a serious breach of article 14 of the Convention.‖261
President Hassan Rouhani has spoken out against the enforcement of the hijabrequirement, specifically criticizing the use of undercover agents by the morality police, notingthat the duty of the police is to enforce the law and not Islam. 262 In early 2015, the Guardian
Council also rejected a bill proposing to give greater power to police and other agencies toenforce the compulsory hijab law and included measures such as fining companies where
workers do not observe the hijab regulation. 263 However, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei has stated that the first priority of the police is ―to serve the society of the Islamic
republic‖ ―in the name of God.‖ 264 Given that the Supreme Leader controls Iran‘s law
enforcement agencies and operations, movements to loosen or abolish hijab regulations may behindered and women will continue to be discriminatorily punished for their attire. 265 Despite
signs in 2017 that the police in Tehran would no longer arrest women for breaking Islamic dress
code, at least 29 people were detained in February 2018 for not wearing compulsory headscarves
and were reportedly charged with ―disturbing public security.‖266

261

Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on the combined third and fourth periodic
reports of the Islamic Republic of Iran, CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, 14 Mar. 2016, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4.
262
Rouhani Clashes with Iranian Clergy over Women Arrested for ‗Bad Hijab‘, THE GUARDIAN, 27 May 2015,
available at http://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2015/may/27/iran-hijab-rouhani-versus-senior-clergyenforcement; Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, Rouhani Clashes with Iranian Police Over Undercover Hijab Agents,
REUTERS, 20 Apr. 2016 available at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-rights-rouhani-idUSKCN0XH0WH.
263
AFP, Iran shoots down controversial new hijab law, THE TIMES OF ISRAEL, 3 Jan. 2015 available at
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-shoots-down-controversial-new-hijab-law/.
264
Rouhani Clashes with Iranian Clergy over Women Arrested for ‗Bad Hijab‘, THE GUARDIAN, 27 May 2015,
available at http://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2015/may/27/iran-hijab-rouhani-versus-senior-clergyenforcement.
265
See PBS FRONTLINE, The Structure of Power in Iran, (2014), available at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/inside/govt.html.
266
See, e.g., Aya Batrawy, Iranian police in Tehran announce women who break Islamic dress codes no longer facearrest, THE INDEPENDENT, 29 Dec. 2017, available at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle53
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenRecommendations
1. Iran‘s legislative branch should abolish stoning as a punishment, which has been held toconstitute torture, and cruel and inhuman punishment under international human rightslaw.
2. Iran‘s legislative branch should amend the Penal Code to ensure the age of criminal
responsibility is the same for girls and boys.
3. Iran‘s legislative branch should abolish retribution in kind (qisa) as a punishment, which
has been held to violate the right to life under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(considered customary international law) and article 6 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (of which Iran is a signatory).267 Under the current law, qisa
should not be used to as a basis to discriminate against women.
4. Iran‘s legislative branch should abolish legal immunity for a husband that kills a wife andher sexual partner upon finding them having sexual intercourse.
5. Iran‘s legislative branch should abolish the compulsory hijab law.
6. Given that Islamic law is constitutionally supreme in Iran, favor interpretations of the
Quran that favor gender equality to facilitate the eradication of legal discrimination.

east/irairan-police-tehran-women-rights-islamic-dress-code-arrests-police-hijab-hasan-rouhani-reforma8132726.html; Iran arrests 29 women for not wearing hijab in protests, AL JAZEERA, 2 Feb. 2018, available athttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/iran-arrests-29-women-wearing-hijab-protests-180202084416823.html.
267
The Structure of Power in Iran, PBS FRONTLINE, 2014, available at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/inside/govt.html.
54
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenREPUBLIC OF IRAQ

Government and Legal System
Iraq‘s legal system is a mixture of Islamic and civil law. 268 Article 2 of the newest
Constitution, drafted and approved by national referendum in 2005, establishes Islam as theofficial religion and the main source of legislation.269 Specifically, article 2 states that ―no law
may be enacted that contradicts the established provisions of Islam.‖ Accordingly, article 41
allows personal status issues (such as marriage, divorce and inheritance) to be governed
individually by the different religious groups in Iraq. Not only does this provision contradict
article 14, which provides that all are equal before the law without discrimination, but humanrights advocates criticize article 41 as deepening divisions between religious groups and as
inviting male religious leaders to violate women‘s rights in their determination of family
matters.270 This article has strong potential ―to strip women of many of their previous legal rights
and place them under the control of religious authorities and tribal customs.‖271 According to a2010 report by Freedom House, Article 41 was suspended at the time to consider revisions andresolve the dispute following the criticisms.272 Although personal status matters are currently
determined by state courts under a unified personal status law,273 there have been discussions

268

Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook: Iraq, 12 Jan. 2017, available athttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html.
269
IRAQI CONSTITUTION, art. 2, available at http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/details.jsp?id=10027.
270
UNICEF, Iraq: MENA Gender Equality Profile, Status of Girls and Women in the Middle East and North Africa,
Oct. 2011, at 1, available at https://www.unicef.org/gender/files/Iraq-Gender-Eqaulity-Profile-2011.pdf.
271
Huda Ahmed, Iraq in WOMEN‘S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA: PROGRESS AMIDRESISTANCE, 2010, available at https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/inline_images/Iraq.pdf.
272
Id.
273
UNICEF, Iraq: MENA Gender Equality Profile, Status of Girls and Women in the Middle East and North Africa,
Oct. 2011, at 1, available at https://www.unicef.org/gender/files/Iraq-Gender-Eqaulity-Profile-2011.pdf; see also
PERSONAL STATUS ACT (Act No. 188 of 1959).
55
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

about the article‘s future. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW Committee) raised concern over the possible discriminatory implementationof article 41 amid political instability, sectarian tensions and increasing patriarchal attitudes insociety and in the State party.274 In 2014, the Jaafari (―Al-Jafaari‖, ―Ja‘afari‖) Personal Status
Bill proposed a revision based on Shiite Islamic jurisprudence of the personal status law, which
included three troubling provisions: lowering the legal marriage age to nine for girls;
automatically giving custody of girls to male guardians (wali); and requiring women get consent
from the male guardian before marriage.275 The bill, however, was rejected by parliament.276
Aside from legislation, some schools of thought in the various Iraqi communities
espouse practices that perpetuate discrimination against women. For example, the Hanafi Sunnis,
the most prevailing school for family and personal law issues in Iraq, emphasizes theinterpretation of law through the decision-maker‘s opinions, which opens the door to exploitationin situations not defined in the laws where traditional patriarchal male leaders can thenunilaterally make decisions about marriage and guardianship, ownership and use of property, andindividual freedoms without respecting women‘s rights.277 It also does not change the stigma that

274

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Combined
Fourth to Sixth Periodic Reports of Iraq, CEDAW/C/IRQ/CO/4-6, 10 Mar. 2014, at para. 17(a), available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2fC%2fIRQ%2fCO%
2f4-6&Lang=en.17(a).
275
Suadad al-Salhy, Iraqi Women Protest Against Proposed Islamic Law in Iraq, REUTERS, 8 Mar. 2014, available
at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-women-islam-idUSBREA270NR20140308; Committee on the Eliminationof Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Combined Fourth to Sixth Periodic Reports of
Iraq, CEDAW/C/IRQ/CO/4-6, 10 Mar. 2014, at para. 52(a), available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2fC%2fIRQ%2fCO%
2f4-6&Lang=en.17(a).
276
OHCHR, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Examines Report or Iraq, 30 Sept. 2015, available
at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16538&LangID=E.
277
Christie S. Warren, The Hanafi School, 28 May 2013, available at
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0082.xml; see e.g.
Naureen Shameen, The Future of Abortion Rights in Islam, 2011, available at
http://www.musliminstitute.org/blogs/abortion/future-abortion-rights-islam (explaining that the majority of Hanafi
56
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenwomen face when trying to assert their legal rights.278 In any event, activists also report that ―inpractice … disputes relating to marriage and the family are settled inside the family andcommunity itself, rather than being taken to the police or the courts.‖279
The highest courts in Iraq are the Federal Supreme Court and the Court of Cassation,with judges appointed by the Higher Juridical Council.280 The Supreme Court consists of ninejudges who are appointed for life, and the jurisdiction of the court is limited to constitutional
issues.281 The Court of Cassation consists of a president, five vice-presidents and at least 24
judges. 282 Subordinate courts include the Courts of Appeal and personal status, labor, criminal,
juvenile, and religious courts.283

Human Rights Obligations under International Law
Iraq ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against
Women (―CEDAW‖) in 1986, with reservations on articles 2, 16, and 29(1). 284 The UN

allow for abortions only when there is an ―acceptable justification‖ and commenting on how the ―male dominatedsociety‖ attempted to ―circumvent or restrict‖ the rights granted to women in Islam during the 17 th-century Hanafi
Sunni school).
278
Naureen Shameen, The Future of Abortion Rights in Islam, 2011, available athttps://musliminstitute.org/freethinking/islam/future-abortion-rights-islam (describing the ―taint of shamelessness‖that ―society attaches to [a woman‘s assertion of her legal rights] despite the legal parameters‖).
279
Minority Voices, Iraq: Violence against minority women is rife and poorly addressed, 2011, available at
http://www.minorityvoices.org/news.php/en/1333/iraq-violence-against-minority-women-is-rife-and-poorlyaddressed
280
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook: Iraq, 12 Jan. 2017, available athttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html.
281
Id.; CONSTITUTION OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN (1979), art. 89-90.
282
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook: Iraq, 12 Jan. 2017, available athttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html.
283
Id.
284
Articles 2 (f) and (g) call on states to modify or abolish existing laws and penal codes that discriminate against
women; Article 9 requires equal rights regarding changes and transfers of nationality; Article 16 concerns theelimination of discrimination in marriage and family relations; Article 29, paragraph 1, requires disputes regarding
the interpretation or application of the Convention to be submitted to arbitration if not settled by negotiation. See
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, arts. 2, 9, 16 & 29, 18 Dec. 1979,1249 U.N.T.S. 13, 19 I.L.M. 33 (1980) entered into force 8 Sept. 1981.
57
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (the ―Committee‖) has raised
particular concern about Iraq‘s reservations on articles 2 and 16, which require states to ensurethat legislation and penal codes do not discriminate against women, and that women are notdiscriminated against in matters relating to marriage and family relations. 285 While a jointcommittee of government ministers and civil society representatives has been set up to review
these reservations, the Committee has called on Iraq to ―strengthen its efforts‖ to withdraw thesereservations.286 Further, Iraq has not ratified the Optional Protocol to CEDAW, which would
allow the Committee to hear petitions from women who have exhausted national remedies.287
Iraq is also a state party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR),288 the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),289
the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),290 and the Convention against Torture andOther Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). 291 However, Iraq has not
yet ratified the Optional Protocols to these Conventions. Article 3 of the ICCPR requires
signatories to ensure the equal right of all to enjoy civil and political rights;292 article 3 of the
ICESCR requires signatories to ensure the equal right of all to enjoy economic, social, and285

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Combined
Fourth to Sixth Periodic Reports of Iraq, CEDAW/C/IRQ/CO/4-6, 10 Mar. 2014, at paras. 15-6, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2fC%2fIRQ%2fCO%
2f4-6&Lang=en.17(a).
286
Id.
287
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art 4, (6Oct. 1999), 2131 U.N.T.S. entered into force 22 Dec. 2000.
288
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 Dec. 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171 & 1057 U.N.T.S. 407,
entered into force 23 Mar. 1976.
289
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 Dec. 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into
force 3 Jan. 1976.
290
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 Nov. 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force 2 Sept. 1990.
291
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 10 Dec. 1984,
1465 U.N.T.S. 86.
292International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 3, 16 Dec. 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171 & 1057 U.N.T.S.
407, entered into force 23 Mar. 1976.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

cultural rights;293 and article 2 of the CRC requires signatories to ensure that all children areprotected against all forms of discrimination, including that of gender.294

Honor Killings
The practice of honor killings in Iraq remains a concern for the human rights
community295 and was pointed out in 2014 during the Universal Periodic Review of Iraq. 296 The
practice is based on the idea that ―women who ‗dishonor‘ the family by engaging in sex outsideof marriage should be punished with ostracization or even death.‖ 297 While murder, assault
leading to death and manslaughter, and intentional wounding, beating and damage are penalized
by the Penal Code, many cases of honor killings either go unreported or are covered up by
families due to deep-seated patriarchal attitudes.298 When cases are actually brought to police,
officers fail to open investigations299 or are lenient on perpetrators,300 and incidences are often
presented to courts as suicides.301 Furthermore, in southern and central Iraq, honor killings are

293

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 3, 16 Dec. 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, enteredinto force 3 Jan. 1976.
294
Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 2, 20 Nov. 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, 28 I.L.M. 1448 (1989), enteredinto force 2 Sept. 1990.
295
Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Iraq, CCPR/C/IRQ/CO/5, 3
Dec. 2015, at 25, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR/C/IRQ/CO/5;
see also United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Nations Assistance
Mission for Iraq, Report on Human Rights in Iraq: January-June 2014, at 14, Aug. 2014, available at
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IQ/HRO_Jan-Jun2014Report_en.pdf.
296
Human Rights Council, Report of the WG on the UPR - Iraq, A/HRC/28/14, 12 Dec. 2014, at 127.133, 127.134,
available at https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G14/241/84/PDF/G1424184.pdf.
297
International Rescue Committee, Honor Killings in Northern Iraq: IRC Works to Break the Cycle of Violence andRevenge, RESCUE, 24 Feb. 2010, available at http://www.rescue.org/news/honor-killings-northern-iraq-irc-worksbreak-cycle-violence-and-revenge-6869.
298
UNICEF, 2016 Annual Report: Iraq, at 14, available athttps://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Iraq_2016_COAR.pdf.
299
Id. at 14-15.
300
Yara Bayoumy and Aseel Kami, ―Honor Killings‖ Require Tougher Laws, Say Iraqi Women, REUTERS, 6 Mar.
2012, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-women-idUSTRE82510920120306.
301
Id.
59
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenconsidered to be ―a mitigating excuse‖ when it comes to penalizing these types of murders.302 In
2015 the Human Rights Committee expressed concerns ―at reports that violence against women,
including domestic violence and ‗honour killing‘, remains a serious problem in the State
party.‖303
Furthermore, legislation provides reduced sentences where crimes are committed inprotection of one‘s honor. Article 409 of the Penal Code stipulates that if a man catches his wife
or girlfriend in the act of adultery or cheating, and kills or permanently disables her and/or her
lover, the man will be punished by a maximum 3-year prison term.304 Given that the offense of
murder can attract life imprisonment or the death penalty in certain circumstances, 305 thisprovision grants men protection from a much more serious punishment on the grounds that thecrime was committed to regain his honor. There is also no equivalent provision for women who
kill adulterous husbands. In addition, Article 128(1) of the Penal Code provides that where an
offense is commissioned due to ―honourable motives,‖ such is to be considered a ―mitigating
excuse‖ that may reduce a penalty at the court‘s discretion.306 This includes reducing the penalty
for murder. 307 These provisions can significantly reduce the punishment for offenses that
disproportionately affect women, creating a culture minimizing violence against women and thus
not guaranteeing women adequate protection against violence.

302

Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, Violence Against Women in Iraq, 2014, available at
http://kvinnatillkvinna.se/en/files/qbank/217b4c71837fac172fabebfc299f755b.pdf.
303
Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Iraq, CCPR/C/IRQ/CO/5, 3
Dec. 2015, at 25, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR/C/IRQ/CO/5.
304
IRAQI PENAL CODE (LAW NO. 111 OF 1969), art. 409, available at
http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=57206&p_country=IRQ&p_count=235.
305
Id., art. 405-6.
306
Id., art. 128(1).
307
Id., art. 130.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Honor Killings in Kurdish Region
Although the Kurdish region of Iraq enacted a law against domestic violence in 2011,
violence against women through honor killings also persists in Kurdish communities. In 2014,
the CEDAW Committee stated it was ―deeply concerned at: . . . (c) The low number of criminal
charges brought to court despite the enactment of legislation repealing legal concessions toperpetrators of crimes committed in the name of ‗honour‘ (Act No. 14 (2002)) in the Kurdistan
Region, with the cause of death in cases involving killings of women commonly being recorded
as unknown or suicide.‖308 The challenge with understanding the scope of this practice in theregion, however, is the difficulty in obtaining accurate and clear data. The Warvin Foundation
for Women‘s Issues identified 60 murders and 27 suicides that occurred from January to June of2013 in the Kurdistan region, but the previously stated reasons of inaccurate death registration,family cover ups, and unreliable law enforcement suggest that these numbers do not accuratelyreflect the frequency of honor killings in the region.309 Additionally, the inconsistency of thesenumbers with the 2013-2013 numbers reported by the Kurdistan Regional Government andForensic Institute in Kurdistan for 2013 reveal the difficulty in accurately estimating honor
killing data in the region.310 Furthermore, the variety of physically violent means used to carryout honor killings makes it difficult to discern whether a death resulted from an honor killing.311

308

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations on the Combined
Fourth to Sixth Periodic Reports of Iraq, CEDAW/C/IRQ/CO/4-6, 10 Mar. 2014, at para. 25, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2fC%2fIRQ%2fCO%
2f4-6&Lang=en.17(a).
309
Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, Violence Against Women in Iraq, 2014, available at
http://kvinnatillkvinna.se/en/files/qbank/217b4c71837fac172fabebfc299f755b.pdf.
310
Id.
311
Honor-based deaths can result from ―physical violence (including assault, maiming and killing), coerced suicide(including by enforced self-immolation), starvation, forced marriage of women (often to a man who has already
raped her), forced abortion, removal of children, female genital mutilation, forced virginity, forced hymen repair,and the curtailment of liberty, basic rights and/or education.‖ Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, Id.
61
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenTo make matters more complex, doctors often do not register honor killing deaths as such forfear of retaliation from relatives and tribes.312

Discriminatory Law Enforcement Practices
The Iraqi Penal Code (Law No.111 of 1989)
As written, the Iraqi Penal Code is inconsistent with both the country‘s constitution andinternational human rights standards.313 First, the constitution stipulates the principle of equality
before the law and prohibits discrimination based on gender as well as violence in the family. 314
However, the Penal Code does not treat both sexes equally when it comes to criminal sanctions.
Article 409 provides an exception for male perpetrators with regards to honor killings as
explained above. Given that the offense of murder can attract life imprisonment or the death
penalty in certain circumstances,315 this provision grants men broad protection from a much more
serious punishment on the grounds that the crime was committed to regain his honor. There isalso no equivalent leniency for women who kill adulterous husbands. A woman who commits
the same crime can be punished with life imprisonment or even death. 316 Article 407 of the Penal
Code also carves out another exception that discriminates against women. A male parent killing
his out-of-wedlock child is not criminalized, whereas the same action is a crime for the female
parent.317

312

Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, Id.
IRAQI PENAL CODE.
314
IRAQ CONST., arts. 14, 29.
315
IRAQI PENAL CODE, art. 405-6.
316
IRAQI PENAL CODE, arts. 405-406.
317
IRAQI PENAL CODE, art. 407.
313

62
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenGender Discrimination in the Penal CodeLastly, women are more likely than men to be convicted of adultery due to discriminatory
laws and customs.318 For example, article 377 of the Penal Code provides that a man is to bepunished by detention for adultery only if the act takes place in the marital home.319 However, awoman faces the same punishment regardless of where the act took place. 320 Although stoning is
not formally legal in Iraq, it is reported that ―tribal leaders, and others‖ carry it out as punishment
for adultery.321 According to a 2013 survey, of the 91 percent of Iraqis who believed that Sharia
should be the law of the land, 58 percent favored stoning as a punishment for adultery.322
The aforementioned provisions in the Penal Code also do not conform to therequirements under CEDAW,323 the UN Charter,324 the U.N. Declaration on the Elimination ofDiscrimination against Women, 325 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 326 Under
these laws, Iraq is required to prevent violence against women and to take active steps toinvestigate any such incidences, which the Penal Code fails to do. In 2015, the Committee on

318

Emma Batha, Special Report: The Punishment was Death by Stoning. The Crime? Having a Mobile Phone, THE
INDEPENDENT, 29 Sept. 2013, available at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/special-report-thepunishment-was-death-by-stoning-the-crime-having-a-mobile-phone-8846585.html.
319
IRAQ PENAL CODE (Act No. 111 of 1969), art. 377(2) (Note, however, that this provision has been abolished in
the Kurdistan region: Law No. 9 of 2001).
320
Id. at art. 377(1).
321
Emma Batha, Special Report: The Punishment was Death by Stoning. The Crime? Having a Mobile Phone, THE
INDEPENDENT, 29 Sept. 2013, available at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/special-report-thepunishment-was-death-by-stoning-the-crime-having-a-mobile-phone-8846585.html.
322
Pew Research Center, Chapter 1: Beliefs About Sharia (30 Apr. 2013) available at
http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/.
323
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, arts. 2, 5, 6 & 15, 18 Dec. 1979,1249 U.N.T.S. 13, entered into force 8 Sept. 1981.
324
United Nations Charter, arts. 1 & 2, available at http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-i/index.html.
325
Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, A/RES/22/2263, 7 Nov. 1967, at art. 4(mandating that states ―condemn violence against women‖, ―not invoke any custom, tradition or religious
consideration to avoid [this] obligation[]‖, and ―pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of
eliminating violence against women‖), available at http://www.un-documents.net/a22r2263.htm.
326
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, A/RES/217 A (III), 10 Dec 1948, art. 3 (stating that ―everyone has theright to life, liberty, and the security of person‖), available at
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recommended Iraq to ―[r]epeal provisions 128, 130, 131,
398 and 409, among others, of the Penal Code, with a view to ensuring zero tolerance of genderbased violence.‖327
Despite moves made to amend the Penal Code and to ―provide better support for victimsof violence and monitor cases of violence against women,‖328 the most recent version from 14
March 2010 still does not meet this requirement. Factors including a lack of political will andentrenched discriminatory customs are to be blamed for the stand still.329
Although the face of the Iraqi Criminal Procedure Code which governs the detention
and arrest of individuals does not espouse discriminatory punishment against women, the effectof its application does. The Iraqi Constitution provides for the right to a defense in all phases ofan investigation and preserves the right to be treated with justice in judicial and administrative
proceedings for all.330 But the current procedures in the Iraqi Criminal Procedure Code do notadequately protect women. For instance, Article 109 allows the detention period to be extended
from 24 hours to 48 hours if a preliminary investigation report requires additional time, but inpractice, the detention is often extended to 72 hours.331 During lengthy periods of detainment,
women are vulnerable to sexual assaults and rape.332

327

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report ofIraq, 27 Oct. 2015, E/C.12/IRQ/CO/4, available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E/C.12/IRQ/CO/4.
328
Marilou Gregoire-Blais, Iraqi Women: Lost Liberties, ALTERNATIVES LA SOLIDARITE EN ACTION (2010), at 12,
available at http://iraq.alterinter.org/IMG/pdf/Final_Policya116.pdf.
329
Id. at 11-13.
330
IRAQ CONST., art. 19.
331
OHCHR, Report on the Death Penalty in Iraq, Oct. 2014, at 12, available at
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IQ/UNAMI_HRO_DP_1Oct2014.pdf.
332
See e.g., Women Tortured and Raped in Iraqi Prisons, HUFFINGTON POST, 6 Feb. 2014, available at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/iraq-illegally-detains-th_n_4735144.html; Peter Beaumont, Iraqi
Prisons Leave Women Doubly Vulnerable, THE GUARDIAN, 15 Mar. 2013, available athttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/15/iraqi-prisons-women-doubly-vulnerable.
64
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenRecommendations
1. Implement an effective judiciary to combat the systemic problem of lengthy detentions
without due process. Specifically, the government should hire a sufficient number ofjudges and trained personnel.
2. Ensure equal and meaningful participation of women and minorities in parliament,
pursuant to the constitution which mandates that women constitute at least 25 percent ofparliamentary and provincial council membership. Although there has been an increase in
the number of female parliamentarians, political discussions still often marginalize
female members and there was only one female minister in the Council of Ministers.
3. Modify the law to disallow mitigation sentences for honor killings, which remain aserious problem in Iraq, and other laws which have a discriminatory impact on thepunishment of women.

65
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

MALAYSIA
Government and Legal System
Malaysia consists of thirteen states and three federal territories divided between
Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia.333 It is a constitutional monarchy and its parliament isgoverned by a written constitution. 334 The Federal Constitution of Malaysia (Constitution)
guarantees certain rights and freedoms including equality and non-discrimination. 335
Specifically, article 8(1) of the Constitution states ―[a]ll persons are equal before the law andentitled to the equal protection of the law.‖ In addition, article 8(2) of the Malaysian Constitution
stipulates that ―there shall be no discrimination against citizens on the ground only of ...
gender ... in any law.‖
Malaysia has a dual judicial system and the Malaysian Constitution ensures that eachsystem is independent from the other.336 One system comprises of civil and criminal courts andthe other system comprises of Syariah courts for matters relating to Islamic law.337 Syariah (theMalaysian term for Sharia) courts apply only to Muslims, who are governed by Islamic personaland family law. 338 These Islamic laws are codified either by state legislation or, for federal
territories, by the Parliament.339
333

The Equal Rights Trust In Partnership with Tenaganita, Washing the Tigers –Addressing Discrimination andInequality in Malaysia, at III, ERT Country Report Series 2, Nov. 2012, available at
http://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/Malaysia%20CR%201.pdf.
334
Id.
335
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF MALAYSIA, arts. 5-13, available at
http://www.jac.gov.my/images/stories/akta/federalconstitution.pdf.
336
Id; see also FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF MALAYSIA, Part IX, especially art. 121(1)(A), available at
http://www.jac.gov.my/images/stories/akta/federalconstitution.pdf ("The courts referred to in Clause (1) shall haveno jurisdiction in respect of any matter within the jurisdiction of the Syariah courts").
337
The Equal Rights Trust in Partnership with Tenaganita, Washing the Tigers –Addressing Discrimination andInequality in Malaysia, at IV, 17, ERC Country Report Series 2, Nov. 2012, available at
http://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/Malaysia%20CR%201.pdf.
338
Id.
339
Li Hua Chew, Legislating Faith in Malaysia, SINGAPORE JOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES 264, 265 (2007).
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

The Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act of 1965 governs Malaysia‘s Islamic
criminal law, which takes on a milder form.340 Conservative states in Malaysia, like Kelantan,
have recently moved towards stricter application of Islamic law by including more traditional
punishments such as stoning into their state‘s penal code.341 Because the Malaysian population isover 61 percent Muslim, the majority of Malaysian people are within the jurisdiction of Syariah
courts.342 However, because the Syariah court system‘s jurisdiction is mainly over state-enacted
Syariah law, under the Constitution federal law is still supreme in the case of conflicts orinconsistencies.343

Human Rights Obligations under International Law
While Malaysia ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1995,344 it has declared that its accession is subject
to compatibility with the Malaysian Constitution and Syariah law. 345 Malaysia had also made aseries of reservations to the application of CEDAW, although some have been withdrawn in340

See Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act of 1965 (Revised 1988), available at
http://www.agc.gov.my/agcportal/uploads/files/Publications/LOM/EN/Act%20355%20%20Syariah%20Courts%20(Criminal%20Jurisdiction)%201965.pdf.
341
Id; see also Lora Moftah, Malaysia Shariah Law: Islamic Party Passes Bill to Implement Harsh Islamic Criminal
Punishments, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES, 19 Mar. 2015, available at http://www.ibtimes.com/malaysiashariah-law-islamist-party-passes-bill-implement-harsh-islamic-criminal-1852948.
342
See Department of Statistics – Malaysia, Official Portal, Population Distribution and Basic Demographic
Characteristic Report 2010 (Updated 05/08/2011), 29 July 2011, available athttps://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemeByCat&cat=117&bul_id=MDMxdHZjWTk1SjFzTzNkR
XYzcVZjdz09&menu_id=L0pheU43NWJwRWVSZklWdzQ4TlhUUT09.
343
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF MALAYSIA, arts. 75, available at
http://www.jac.gov.my/images/stories/akta/federalconstitution.pdf.
344
The Equal Rights Trust in Partnership with Tenaganita, Washing the Tigers –Addressing Discrimination andInequality in Malaysia, at VII-VIII, 49-50, ERT Country Report Series 2, Nov. 2012, available at
http://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/Malaysia%20CR%201.pdf; see also Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 Dec. 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, entered into force 8
Sept. 1981.
345
See id.
67
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenrecent years.346 Still, the remaining reservations (on Articles 9(2), 16(1)(a), 16(1)(c), 16(1)(f) and16(1)(g) of CEDAW) leave women without equal rights with respect to passing their nationality
to their children, entering into marriage, and parental and family rights.347 The Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women in its 2006 comments expressed concern that
despite the Malaysian Constitution‘s express prohibition of discrimination based on gender,
neither the Constitution nor the country‘s other legislation contain a definition of discrimination
against women that is in accordance with Article 1 of CEDAW,348 nor a principle of equality of
men and women that is in line with Article 2(a) of CEDAW.
Additionally, in the same report, the Committee noted that adherence to major humanrights instruments would further women‘s rights and recommended that Malaysia consider
ratifying the major human rights treaties to which it was not a party, including the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil andPolitical Rights, among others.349

Sex Crimes
The most apparent discrimination against women under Syariah Law, specifically the
Syariah Criminal Offences Act,350 is in the area of sex crimes.351 For example, out of 39 people

346

See id (In 1998, Malaysia notified the U.N. Secretary-General of a partial withdrawal of its reservations in
respect of articles 2(f), 9(1), 16(b), 16(d), 16(e), and 16(h); see also U.N. Women - United Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and the Empowerment of Women, Declarations, Reservations and Objections to CEDAW (Malaysia) (lastupdated 2009), available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/reservations-country.htm.
347
See ERT Report on Malaysia, at VII-VIII, 49-50
348
See Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 1, 18 Dec. 1979, 1249
U.N.T.S. 13, 19 I.L.M. 33 (1980) entered into force Sept. 8 1981.
349
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding comments of the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Malaysia, CEDAW/C/MYS/CO/2, 31 May 2006, at 6.
350
The articles of the Syariah Criminal Offences mentioned in this report refers to the Syariah Criminal Offences(Federal Territories) Act 1997, which is a federal act that governs Malaysia‘s federal territories such as Kuala
68
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

tried and convicted of sex crimes in the state of Johor, 22 were women.352 One important factor
that contributes to this discriminatory outcome is the evidentiary requirements for establishingsex crimes under the Act. Section 41 of the Syariah Criminal Offences Act describes theevidence required to convict a Muslim of a sexual offense.353 To establish a sexual offense, thecourt requires presentation of either the accused‘s confession or the testimony of four malewitnesses.354 If the accuser fails to procure four male witnesses, then the accuser would be liable
to a fine or potential imprisonment.355 This necessarily means that a Muslim woman in Malaysia
risks being charged under the criminal law should they come forward to report their sexualassault without producing four male witnesses. Thus, in effect, this section serves to punish
women who are victims of a variety of sexual offenses. Not only does this encourage theunderreporting of sexual assaults, but it adds to the woman‘s burden of having to go out andsecure the right number of male witnesses or else be punished for being the victim of a crime.

Lumpur. States have similar Criminal Offences Acts. See The Commissioner of Law Revision, Malaysia, SYARIAH
CRIMINAL OFFENCES (FEDERAL TERRITORIES) ACT 1997 (incorporating all amendments up to 1 Jan. 2006), available
at http://www.mylawyer.com.my/pdf/Syariah_Criminal_Offences_Federal_Territories_Act.pdf.
351
See AWAM, Repeal Syariah Criminal Offences Laws, 26 June 2013, available at
http://www.awam.org.my/2013/06/1077/ (listing concerns such as whipping as a form of punishment for crimes
such as incest where the victim is rendered liable).
352
Id.; see also Mariam Mokhtar, Public Whippings in Johore?, FMT NEWS, 15 June 2013, available at
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/06/15/public-whippings-in-johore/.
353
The Commissioner of Law Revision, Malaysia, SYARIAH CRIMINAL OFFENCES (FEDERAL TERRITORIES) ACT1997 (incorporating all amendments up to 1 Jan. 2006), § 41, Part V, available at
http://www.mylawyer.com.my/pdf/Syariah_Criminal_Offences_Federal_Territories_Act.pdf.
354
See id (―Except in cases of li‗an, any person who accuses another person of committing zina without procuring
four male witnesses or an iqrar of the accused person in accordance with Islamic Law shall be guilty of an offence
and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term notexceeding three years or to both.‖ The first phrase – ―except in cases of li‘an‖ – means that if four witnesses cannot
be procured, the accuser can swear a li‘an oath that they are telling the truth (and that they would be condemned by
Allah if they are not), and someone accused of zina can also swear an oath that they have not committed it.).
355
Id.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Zina (Adultery)
Another discriminatory evidentiary requirement that weighs on subsequent punishment issection 23(3) of the Syariah Criminal Offences Act. This subsection allows ―the fact that awoman is pregnant out of wedlock as a result of sexual intercourse performed with her consent[to] be prima facie evidence of the commission of [extramarital sexual intercourse]‖, also known
as the crime of zina.356 This subsection results in a disproportionate number of women being
punished under section 23 than men because there is no equivalent prima facie evidence forconvicting men. While the pregnant woman is convicted, her sexual partner would often be left
alone because of insufficient evidence. For example, a pregnant Muslim woman was arrested forzina when she went to the police to look for her missing boyfriend because she was unmarried.357
This subsection results in more women being charged for sex crimes under section 23 than men.
In 2010, Malaysian authorities caned three Muslim women for the crime of zina because
they admitted to having sex before marriage.358 Caning women is prohibited in section 289 of the
Criminal Procedure Code.359 By violating the code, the Malaysian authorities do not give these
women equal and non-discriminatory treatment before the law, which is against Constitutional
guarantees. Furthermore, caning as a form of punishment violates international human rights
principles, which regard these types of corporal punishments as cruel, inhumane and degrading.

356

The Commissioner of Law Revision, Malaysia, SYARIAH CRIMINAL OFFENCES (FEDERAL TERRITORIES) ACT1997 (incorporating all amendments up to 1 Jan. 2006), § 23(3), Part IV, available at
http://www.mylawyer.com.my/pdf/Syariah_Criminal_Offences_Federal_Territories_Act.pdf.
357
Boo Su-Lyn & Ida Lim, Hudud will Drive Rape Survivors Deeper into Shadows, Say Women‘s Groups,
MALAYMAIL ONLINE, 3 May 2014, available at http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/hudud-willdrive-rape-survivors-deeper-into-shadows-say-womens-groups.
358
Joe Sterling, 3 Women Caned in Malaysia for Adultery, CNN, 17 Feb. 2010, available at
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/17/malaysia.adultery.caning/.
359
See CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE § 289 (―No sentence of whipping shall be executed by instalments, and none of
the following persons shall be punishable with whipping: (a) females‖), available at
http://54.251.120.208/doc/laws/Act_593_-_Criminal_Procedure_Code_(CPC).pdf.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Punishment against Women for Rape Allegations
In rape cases, not only is a woman‘s testimony of her own rape inadequate evidence incourt, but on top of the punishments stipulated in section 41, a woman who comes to court
alleging rape also confesses to having had sex. Thus, if the woman is married at the time, she
may risk being charged and potentially punished for adultery under section 23. 360 Section 23
does not have a consent requirement so it is possible for a rape victim to be convicted under thissection so long as she had sex with someone ―who is not her husband‖ and cannot prove herrape.361 In contrast, as long as a male rapist does not confess to the crime, he can go free because
it is unlikely that four male witnesses will be present or willing to testify against him. These
consequences further deter women from reporting rape.
There are numerous sources that show the actual effects of this discriminatory evidentiary
structure with respect to rape cases. In an interview, the Sisters in Islam program manager
revealed that in Muslim countries, female rape victims as young as 12 or 13 years old can beconvicted of adultery and publicly whipped.362 Only two out of every ten cases are reported andthe All Women‘s Action Society (AWAM) found that between 1994-1998, only ten percent of
the reported cases resulted in successful convictions of the rapist. 363 This underreporting is a360

See id., § 23(2) (―Any woman who performs sexual intercourse with a man who is not her lawful husband shallbe guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to whipping not exceeding six strokes or to any combination
thereof‖.).
361
See id.
362
Boo Su-Lyn & Ida Lim, Hudud will Drive Rape Survivors Deeper into Shadows, Say Women‘s Groups,
MALAYMAIL ONLINE, 3 May 2014, available at http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/hudud-willdrive-rape-survivors-deeper-into-shadows-say-womens-groups.
363
Tarrence Tan, One Female Raped Every 35 Mins in M‘sia, Study Shows, FMT NEWS, 22 Apr. 2015, available at
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/04/22/one-female-raped-every-35-mins-in-msia-studyshows/; see also Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani, Rights of Muslim Rape Victims Spark Debate in Malaysia, ASIAONE, 28
Apr. 2015, available at http://news.asiaone.com/news/malaysia/rights-muslim-rape-victims-spark-debate-malaysia;
AWAM, Press Statement on Sexual Assault Cases in Malaysia, 10 Sept., 2014, available at71
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womensignificant issue of women‘s rights in Malaysia and shows that many rape victims are
discouraged from seeking protection from authorities because of the potential punishments.
Because some states recently moved towards a more conservative application of Islamic
law, Muslim women convicted of adultery can receive the maximum punishment of stoning. For
example, in 2002, the state of Terengganu approved a bill to bring Islamic laws into the state‘s
legal system, including stoning for adultery.364 More recently, Kelatan, a conservative Malaysianstate modified its penal code to include the Islamic punishment of stoning for adultery. 365
Although no one has yet been sentenced to stoning, this punishment is now a legal possibility insome states.

Discrimination against Transgender WomenTransgender women also face arbitrary discrimination within Malaysian society, forexample under section 21 of the Minor Offences Act of 1955, which punishes ―indecent
behavior‖ with a fine or imprisonment up to 14 days, and a larger fine or up to 3 months prison
for subsequent convictions. 366 Transgender women are often charged under section 21 for

http://www.awam.org.my/web/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/AWAM-Press-Statement-on-Sexual-Assault-Cases-inMalaysia.pdf.
364
Emma Batha, FACTBOX: Stoning – Where Does It Happen?, THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION, 29 Sept. 2013,
available at http://news.trust.org//item/20130927165059-w9g0i/ (The Islamic criminal laws were, however, opposedby the federal government, which means that these laws have no legal effect.).
365
Ludovica Iaccino, Malaysia: Kelantan State Introduces Amputation for Theft and Stoning for Adultery,
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES, 20 Mar. 2015, available at http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/malaysia-kelantan-stateintroduces-amputations-theft-stoning-death-adultery-1492928.
366
LAWS OF MALAYSIA, ACT 336 - MINOR OFFENSES ACT, 1955 (incorporating all amendments up to 1 January2006) § 21, available at http://www.agc.gov.my/agcportal/uploads/files/Publications/LOM/EN/Act%20336.pdf(―Any person who is found drunk and incapable of taking care of himself, or is guilty of any riotous, disorderly orindecent behaviour, or of persistently soliciting or importuning for immoral purposes in any public road or in any
public place or place of public amusement or resort, or in the immediate vicinity of any Court or of any public officeor police station or place of worship, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty-five ringgit or to imprisonment
for a term not exceeding fourteen days, and on a second or subsequent conviction to a fine not exceeding one
hundred ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both.‖).
72
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women―indecent behavior‖ and ―importuning for immoral purposes‖ even though neither term isdefined in the Act.367 When arrested, transgendered women are imprisoned with men and areoften mistreated verbally and sexually by the police and other inmates. 368 In addition to thearbitrary enforcement of federal law against transgender women, Muslim transgender women
also face significant legal hurdles. Every Malaysian state has passed Syariah enactments thatcriminalize Muslim men for dressing as women. 369 These laws effectively institutionalize
discrimination against transgender individuals and are enforced by the state‘s Islamic Religious
Departments.370 However, none of these laws explicitly define transgender dressing or posing.371
Initial optimism for the protection of transgender women‘s rights in a decision by the
Court of Appeal was crushed when the Federal Court overturned the decision.372 In 2014, sixteen
transgender women were arrested by the state‘s Religious Department for violating section 66 of367

U.S. Dept. of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015 – Malaysia, at 28, available athttps://www.state.gov/documents/organization/252989.pdf.
368
Id.; see also Women‘s Aid Organisation, CEDAW & Malaysia – Malaysian Non-Government Organisations‘
Alternative Report Assessing the Government‘s Progress in Implementing the United Nations CEDAW, Apr. 2012,at 237, available at
http://wao.org.my/file/file/Malaysian%20NGO%20CEDAW%20Alternative%20Report%202012%206MB.pdf.
369
See, e.g., The Commissioner of Law Revision, Malaysia, SYARIAH CRIMINAL OFFENCES (FEDERAL TERRITORIES)ACT 1997 (incorporating all amendments up to 1 Jan. 2006), § 28, Part IV, available at
http://www.mylawyer.com.my/pdf/Syariah_Criminal_Offences_Federal_Territories_Act.pdf (―Any male person
who, in any public place, wears a woman‘s attire and poses as a woman for immoral purposes shall be guilty of an
offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term
not exceeding one year or to both.‖).
370
See Tahir Rawther, The Rise of Malaysian Religious Tyranny, THE HUFFINGTON POST, 20 May 2016, available at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tahir-rawther-/the-rise-of-malaysian-rel_b_10059788.html (reporting that the
government announced plans to place ―two officers and a sergeant‖ at an Islamic Religious Department ―to assist the
department in Shariah law enforcement‖ after an incident with a transgender woman).
371
See generally The Commissioner of Law Revision, Malaysia, SYARIAH CRIMINAL OFFENCES (FEDERALTERRITORIES) ACT 1997 (incorporating all amendments up to 1 Jan. 2006), available at
http://www.mylawyer.com.my/pdf/Syariah_Criminal_Offences_Federal_Territories_Act.pdf.
372
Muhamad Juzaili Bin Mohd Khamis v. State Government of Negeri Sembilan (Court of Appeal, Putrajaya,
Malaysia, Nov. 7, 2014); see also Praveen Menon, Malaysia Court Upholds Ban on Cross Dressing by Transgender
Muslims, REUTERS, 8 Oct. 2015, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-verdict-crossdressingidUSKCN0S21CE20151008.
73
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

the state‘s Syariah Law.373 The section prohibits ―any male person who in any public place wears
a woman‘s attire or poses as a woman.‖ 374 The Court of Appeal held that section 66 isunconstitutional and void because it violated numerous human rights, as well as theconstitutional guarantee of equal protection. The court found that transgender people will haveviolated section 66 the ―very moment they leave their homes,‖ thus placing a burden on theirability to ―attend to the basic needs of life, to earn a living, or to socialize.‖375 The court further
notes that the section is ―discriminatory[,] oppressive and denied [transgender individuals] theequal protection of the law.‖376 However, the Federal Court in 2015 dismissed the lower court
ruling and upheld the Syariah provision based on a technicality. 377 The Federal Court struck
down the Court of Appeal‘s decision, claiming that the case should have been directly taken to
the Federal Court instead of going to the Court of Appeal first.378
Recommendations
1. Immediately remove the reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Formsof Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as they prevent women in Malaysia fromhaving equal rights as men. The Malaysian government maintains reservations to Articles
9(2), 16(1)(a), 16(1)(c), 16(1)(f) and 16(1)(g) of the CEDAW, all of which relate to theright to equality.379

373

Muhamad Juzaili Bin Mohd Khamis v. State Government of Negeri Sembilan (Court of Appeal, Putrajaya,
Malaysia, 7 Nov. 2014).
374
Id.
375
Id.
376
Id.
377
Praveen Menon, Malaysia Court Upholds Ban on Cross Dressing by Transgender Muslims, REUTERS, 8 Oct.
2015, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-verdict-crossdressing-idUSKCN0S21CE20151008.
378
Id.
379
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, arts. 9(2) & 16(1)(a), (c), (f) &(g), 18 Dec. 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, 19 I.L.M. 33 (1980) entered into force 8 Sept. 1981.
74
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

2. Section 21 of the Minor Offences Act 1955 should be repealed along with any relatedclause in the Syariah Criminal Enactments because this section is discriminatory against
transgendered individuals and does not afford them equal rights as citizens.
3. In addition to the amendment or abolishment of the provisions mentioned above, theMalaysian government should review all federal and state legislations and policies, andamend or remove, if necessary, existing legislation and policies that are in conflict withthe right to be free from discrimination and the right to equality.

Article 9(2) provides for equal rights for women with respect to the nationality of their children;
Article 16(1)(a) provides that men and women have the same right to enter into marriage;
Article 16(1)(c) provides that men and women have the same rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its
dissolution;
Article 16(1)(f) provides for the same rights and responsibilities with respect to guardianship, wardship, trusteeshipand adoption of children, or similar institutions where these concepts exist in national legislation; andArticle 16(1)(g) provides for the same personal rights as husband and wife, including the right to choose a family
name, a profession and an occupation.
75
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenINDEPENDENT STATE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Government and Legal System
Papua New Guinea (hereinafter ―PNG‖) is a constitutional, parliamentary democracy,
and a member of the British Commonwealth, having achieved independence from Australia in
1975. 380 Under PNG‘s constitution, the ―underlying law‖ of the country consists of a
combination of British common law as it stood on 16 September 1975 (the date of independence)and customary law based on indigenous practices.381 As such, the legal system in PNG is basedon a mix of statutes, British common law, PNG common law as developed since independence,and customary law.
A unique feature of PNG‘s legal system is the use of what are known as village courts.
The village courts are meant to provide a forum for adjudicating local disputes by mediation and,
if mediation fails, by exercising compulsory jurisdiction.382 These courts tend to function as ad
hoc dispute resolution forums, in contrast to the more formal district courts. 383 The Village
Courts Act of 1973 authorizes the village courts to hear various types of cases of local interest,
including assault, property damage, public drunkenness, and sorcery. 384 While the village courts
are allowed to impose civil penalties to enforce judgments, orders of imprisonment must be
approved by a local or district court magistrate.385

380Papua New Guinea Profile—Timeline, BBC NEWS, 10 Jan. 2017, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/worldasia-15593238.
381
PAPUA NEW GUINEA CONSTITUTION Sch. 2 (1975), available at
http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text.jsp?file_id=199188#LinkTarget_1990.
382
Australian Law Reform Commission, Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Laws, June 1986, available at
http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/30.%20Indigenous%20Justice%20Mechanisms%20in%20some%20Overseas%
20Countries%3A%20Models%20and%20Comparisons/pa.
383
Id.
384
Id.
385
Id.
76
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

The village courts are meant to function as a system for localized, informal dispute
resolution that runs parallel to the district and national courts. 386 In reality, the village courts
often act as the only source of legal redress for many citizens of PNG, especially given the
country‘s population is largely spread out among many remote villages. 387 As a result, most
women‘s first and oftentimes only, if at all, experience with the legal and penal system is withthe local village court. The vast majority of village courts are also staffed by male magistrates;
however, policies introduced since 2000 have gradually increased the number of female
magistrates. (In December 2011, there were 700 female magistrates.)388

Human Rights Obligations under International Law
PNG has ratified a number of various international treaties and conventions concerning
women and women‘s rights, including the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). 389 It has made no reservations to
CEDAW. 390 PNG is also a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).391

386

Id.
See Cyndi Banks, Engendering the Courts in Papua New Guinea, 42 INTL. JOURNAL OF OFFENDER THERAPY AND
COMPARATIVE CRIMINOLOGY 1 (1998), at 42, available at
http://www.academia.edu/2581929/Engendering_the_Courts_in_Papua_New_Guinea; see also Helen Clark, Sorcery
and Sexism in Papua New Guinea, THE DIPLOMAT, 2 June 2015, available at
http://thediplomat.com/2015/06/sorcery-and-sexism-in-papua-new-guinea/.
388
See Cyndi Banks, Engendering the Courts in Papua New Guinea, 42 INTL. JOURNAL OF OFFENDER THERAPY AND
COMPARATIVE CRIMINOLOGY 1 (1998), at 44, available at
http://www.academia.edu/2581929/Engendering_the_Courts_in_Papua_New_Guinea; Papua New Guinea: Social
Institutions and Gender Index, OECD Development Centre Gender Index, 16 July 2015, at 8, available at
http://www.genderindex.org/sites/default/files/datasheets/PG.pdf.
389
United Nations, List of Countries that have Ratified the CEDAW, available athttps://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&lang=en.
390
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, Declarations, Reservations andObjections to CEDAW, available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/reservations-country.htm.
391
OHCHR, Status of Ratification Interactive Dashboard, available at http://indicators.ohchr.org/.
77
387

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenPNG‘s constitution incorporates the provisions of various international conventions andtreaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 392 Section 39 specifically assertsthat international conventions, standards, and rulings may be considered by PNG courts. 393
However, PNG has adopted a gradualist approach to implementing international human rights
instruments; international treaties must be first passed as legislation domestically before they canbe implemented.394

Sorcery-Related Crimes
PNG is a hotbed for sorcery-related crimes, including murder, rape, and assault stemmingfrom accusations of witchcraft. About 90% of the population reportedly believes in witchcraft.395
Additionally, women are disproportionately affected by accusations of witchcraft; it has beenreported that women are six times more likely to be accused of witchcraft than men.396
Until recently, the Sorcery Act of 1971 defined sorcery and criminalized certain acts
related to it.397 Actions criminalized by the Sorcery Act included: pretending to be a sorcerer,using or threatening to use sorcery malevolently, and possessing tools of evil sorcery. 398 On theother hand, the Sorcery Act also made false accusations of sorcery an offense. 399 Nevertheless,

392

PAPUA NEW GUINEA CONSTITUTION Sch. 2 (1975), art. 39, available at
http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text.jsp?file_id=199188#LinkTarget_1990.
393
Id.
394
Papua New Guinea, Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, A/HRC/WG.6/11/PNG/1, 9 May 2011, at
4-5, available at http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/session11/PG/A_HRC_WG.6_11_PNG_1_E.pdf.
395
United Nations Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes
and consequences, Rashida Manjoo (Mission to Papua New Guinea), A/HRC/23/49/Add.2, 18 Mar. 2013, at 8,
available at http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Mission%20to%20Papua%20New%20Guinea.pdf.
396
Id. at 9.
397
Law Reform Commission of Papua New Guinea, Occasional Paper No. 4 on Sorcery, Oct. 1977, available at
http://beta.paclii.org/pg/LRC/OP_04.htm.
398
Id.
399
Id.
78
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

the Sorcery Act made sorcery-related motives a mitigating factor in murder cases. 400 After
experiencing international pressure following some high-profile cases of accused women being
attacked and tortured by mobs, the PNG government repealed the Sorcery Act in 2013.401
Despite recent progress, multiple provisions remain in PNG law that criminalize sorcery.
Section 409 of the PNG Criminal Code makes it a misdemeanor for someone to pretend to use
sorcery, undertake the telling of fortunes, and pretend to use his or her skill in occult sciences todiscover where a stolen or lost object may be found.402 While section 299 of the Criminal Codewas amended in 2013 to expressly define homicide on account of an accusation of sorcery as
murder, sorcery remains a crime under section 409.403
In addition, it is important to note that the vast majority of sorcery-related cases are heard
in the village courts.404 This is reflective of the fact that village courts are often the only forum
for justice or dispute resolution in remote areas. 405 However, many village courts, whose
magistrates often have little or no education and legal knowledge, are not aware of the repeal of
the Sorcery Act and hence still apply it. 406 Moreover, under the Village Courts Act of 1973,

400

SORCERY ACT 1971, art. 16, available at https://archive.org/details/Sa1971117.
Helen Clark, Sorcery and Sexism in Papua New Guinea, THE DIPLOMAT, 2 June 2015, available at
http://thediplomat.com/2015/06/sorcery-and-sexism-in-papua-new-guinea/.
402
PAPUA NEW GUINEA CRIMINAL CODE (1974), art. 409, available at
http://www.paclii.org/pg/legis/consol_act/cca1974115/.
403
CRIMINAL CODE (AMENDMENT) ACT 2013, § 1, available at
http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/98691/117507/F-1310328162/PNG98691.pdf.
404
Melissa Demian, Sorcery Cases in Papua New Guinea‘s Village Courts: Legal Innovation Part IV, In Brief,
Australian National University (2015), available at
http://ips.capcapssgmips.capcapssgm.bellschool.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publications/attachments/2015-12/IB2015-27-Demian_0.pdf.
405
Jo Chandler, Violence Against Women in PNG: How Men are Getting Away with Murder, LOWY INSTITUTE, 29
Aug. 2014, available at http://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/violence-against-women-png-how-men-aregetting-away-murder.
406
Melissa Demian, Sorcery Cases in Papua New Guinea‘s Village Courts: Legal Innovation Part IV, In Brief,
Australian National University (2015), available at
http://ips.capcapssgmips.capcapssgm.bellschool.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publications/attachments/2015-12/IB2015-27-Demian_0.pdf.
79401

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenwhich created the village courts, it is an offense to practice or pretend to practice sorcery,threaten someone with sorcery, make somebody else do sorcery, possess the implements ofsorcery, or pay for sorcery.407 The penalty for violation of these offenses is either a fine of up to
50 PGK (about $15 USD) or community service for up to four weeks.408 If the convicted sorcerer
fails to pay the fine or do community service, then he or she may be sent to jail for as many asfive weeks.409

Gender-Based Sorcery Discrimination
Therefore, although the Sorcery Act has been repealed, sorcery remains criminalized in
PNG. Since in practice, women compose the overwhelming majority of people who are accusedof sorcery, these anti-sorcery laws result in disparate legal punishments against women.410 In
addition, the pervasive reliance on the village courts system in sorcery-related cases often has
discriminatory ramifications. First, as stated above, a majority of magistrates in the village courts
are men, and so this unequal power relation between men and women poses a barrier to justicefor women in the village courts. For example, women might be too intimidated to assert theirlegal rights in court; some evidence has also indicated that male magistrates tend to rule using astricter, more traditional jurisprudence for cases involving women than in cases that do not.411

407

Law Reform Commission of Papua New Guinea, Occasional Paper No. 4 on Sorcery, Oct. 1977, available at
http://beta.paclii.org/pg/LRC/OP_04.htm.
408
Id.
409
Id.
410
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed a similar concern for thetreatment of women and girls accused of witchcraft in its 2010 concluding observations. Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination ofDiscrimination against Women – Papua New Guinea, CEDAW/C/PNG/CO/3, at 6 (30 July 2010).
411
Australian Law Reform Commission, Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Laws, June 1986, available at
http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/30.%20Indigenous%20Justice%20Mechanisms%20in%20some%20Overseas%
20Countries%3A%20Models%20and%20Comparisons/pa.
80
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Secondly, the ad hoc, informal nature of the village courts system is not conducive to protecting
women who are designated as sorcerers. Many village courts are located in remote villages,
where customs may differ substantially from national norms. At any rate, the remoteness andlack of communication and coordination between the village courts and the national government
lead to significant inconsistencies in the application of law by the village courts.412 Combinedwith a pervasive lack of respect for the rights of women, women accused of sorcery in PNG do
not have access to fair and equitable justice.
An even more fundamental problem is that many cases never even reach the village
courts. Oftentimes, an accusation is closely accompanied by mob justice, with accusers roundingup alleged witches and torturing, disfiguring, and killing them among other crimes. 413 These
gross violations of rule of law are perpetuated by laws that legitimize sorcery accusations, and bystate failure to remedy the situation. Instead, women are essentially tried and face the punishmentof mob justice without due process. In practice, many accusations of witchcraft are not evenmotivated by concerns about sorcery but are often the result of property or interpersonal
disputes.414 As a result, women feel the brunt of these punishments without due process.
Recent cases illustrate the problems that women accused of sorcery face in PNG. In 2013,a young woman named Kepari Leniata was accused of witchcraft; a mob stripped her, poured

412

Melissa Demian, Sorcery Cases in Papua New Guinea‘s Village Courts: Legal Innovation Part IV, In Brief,
Australian National University (2015), available at
http://ips.capcapssgmips.capcapssgm.bellschool.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publications/attachments/2015-12/IB2015-27-Demian_0.pdf; see also Helen Clark, Sorcery and Sexism in Papua New Guinea, THE DIPLOMAT, 2 June
2015, available at http://thediplomat.com/2015/06/sorcery-and-sexism-in-papua-new-guinea/ (―Access to justice iscomplicated by the remoteness of many areas . . . village courts or forms of customary law often deal, or don‘t, withproblems. PNG may be on the way to improving legislation but this has not necessarily trickled down to those partsof the country where it is needed.‖).
413
Helen Clark, Sorcery and Sexism in Papua New Guinea, THE DIPLOMAT, 2 June 2015, available at
http://thediplomat.com/2015/06/sorcery-and-sexism-in-papua-new-guinea/.
414
Id.
81
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womengasoline on her, and set her on fire.415 But as of early 2015, though two people had been charged
with the crime, no one had been convicted.416 Just two months after Leniata was killed, a mob in
Bougainville beheaded another woman who had been accused of sorcery. 417 These two incidents
precipitated the repeal of the Sorcery Act. Nevertheless, because of the relative structural
irrelevance of the Sorcery Act as suggested above, women accused of sorcery in PNG continue
to face the risk of mob attacks for their actions.

Violence Against Women
Evidence suggests that women who try to defend themselves from abusers facediscriminatory punishment at the hands of the state. In her report based on an investigatory trip
to PNG in 2012, Rashida Manjoo, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its
causes and consequences (hereinafter ―Special Rapporteur‖), found that 90 percent ofincarcerated women in PNG were serving life sentences for murder, and that many of them werevictims of violence who had acted in self-defense.418 Some of the women interviewed by theSpecial Rapporteur had received no assistance from either their community or the police despite
enduring longstanding abuses by their attackers. 419 The Special Rapporteur found that mostaccused women had received lengthy sentences, and that courts had not been sympathetic to their415

Amnesty International criticizes Papua New Guinea for failing to bring sorcery killers to justice, 7 Feb. 2014,
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORP. (ABC), 7 Feb. 2014, available at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-07/anamnesty-international-criticises-png-for-failing-to-bring-so/5244866.
416
Helen Davidson, PNG women accused of sorcery saved from murder in remote village, THE GUARDIAN, 23 Jan.
2015, available at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/24/png-women-accused-of-sorcery-saved-frommurder-in-remote-village.
417
U.S. Department of State, Papua New Guinea 2013 Human Rights Report, at 18, available at
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/220434.pdf.
418
United Nations Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes
and consequences, Rashida Manjoo (Mission to Papua New Guinea), A/HRC/23/49/Add.2, 18 Mar. 2013, at 10,
available at http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Mission%20to%20Papua%20New%20Guinea.pdf.
419
Id.
82
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenself-defense arguments.420 Some judges even went so far as to say that these women ―needed to
pay the price.‖421 This is in spite of the existence of Article 269 of the PNG Criminal Code,which provides a self-defense claim to victims of unprovoked assaults.422 This treatment stands
in stark contrast to the punishment that male domestic violence offenders face, who are rarely
prosecuted or are able to settle the issue via compensation agreements. Women who commit
domestic violence therefore face disproportionate punishment in PNG.423
For example, in the recent case of State v. Dei, the defendant raised a self-defense claim
after killing her husband who had been assaulting her.424 The defendant had asked for 20 PGKback after she had lent her husband the same amount; instead, he became enraged and began
attacking the defendant.425 She was struck twice, including once over the head by a rock.426 At
that point, the defendant, fearing for her safety, struck her husband in the neck with a knife,
killing him.427 While Article 269(2) of the PNG Criminal Code permits the use of force, ―even if
it causes death or grievous bodily harm,‖ if the defendant reasonably believes it is necessary to
defend him or herself from death or grievous bodily harm, the court held in this case that the

420

Id.
Id.
422
PAPUA NEW GUINEA CRIMINAL CODE (1974), art. 269, available at
http://www.paclii.org/pg/legis/consol_act/cca1974115/.
423
The Special Rapporteur does note some progress in Papua New Guinea‘s treatment of domestic violence byhighlighting the Family Protection Bill, submitted to the National Executive Council by Coalition for Change Papua
New Guinea in collaboration with the Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee and the CLRC. The Bill aims
to establish domestic violence as an offense, and characterize it as a public, rather than private matter. Nevertheless,the Special Rapporteur also emphasized her concern that the draft still places restrictions upon victims. United
Nations Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes andconsequences, Rashida Manjoo (Mission to Papua New Guinea), A/HRC/23/49/Add.2, 18 Mar. 2013, at 54-63,
available at http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Mission%20to%20Papua%20New%20Guinea.pdf.
424
State v. Dei, 2011 PGNC 29 (21 Apr. 2011), available at http://www.paclii.org/cgibin/sinodisp/pg/cases/PGNC/2011/29.html?stem=&synonyms=&query=domestic%20and%20violence%20and%20s
elf%20and%20defence#disp5.
425
Id.
426
Id.
427
Id.
83
421

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

wound inflicted by the defendant indicated intent beyond what was necessary for defense. 428
Thus, the court proved unsympathetic to the defendant‘s self-defense argument. Regardless ofwhether the court‘s interpretation of the law was correct, the fact that the defendant had beenfrequently abused by her husband and the fact that she had been forced into the marriage withhim raises serious questions as to the prosecution of women in such domestic violence cases. In
effect, women may be punished for the potentially inevitable consequences of the abusive
relationships into which they are forced.

Adultery
Adultery is considered a civil wrong in PNG. The Adultery and Enticement Act of 1988
(hereinafter ―Adultery Act‖) provides a civil cause of action for plaintiffs whose spouses havecommitted adultery.429 Section 10 of the Adultery Act requires mediation as a threshold measure
before the action may be heard by the court.430 If mediation fails, then a civil action for monetarycompensation may proceed.431 The amount of compensation awarded from a finding of adultery
may not exceed 1,000 PGK (about $300 USD). 432 Failure to comply with an order forcompensation is punishable by imprisonment for up to six months.433
While the Adultery Law is not on its face discriminatory against women, its applicationin PNG courts can be. The U.S. State Department released a report in 2013 suggesting that
428

Id.; PAPUA NEW GUINEA CRIMINAL CODE (1974), art. 269, available at
http://www.paclii.org/pg/legis/consol_act/cca1974115/; State v. Dei, 2011 PGNC 29, 21 Apr. 2011, available at
http://www.paclii.org/cgi-bin/sinodisp/pg/cases/PGNC/2011/29.html.
429
ADULTERY AND ENTICEMENT ACT (1988), § 4, available at
http://archive.org/stream/AdulteryAndEnticementAct1988./Adultery%20and%20Enticement%20Act%201988._djvu
.txt.
430
Id., § 10.
431
Id., § 11.
432
Id., § 12.
433
Id., § 18.
84
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenvillage courts‘ decisions in adultery cases favor men, with women often being sentenced toprison terms under customary law while men receive minor penalties, if they are penalized atall. 434 However, district courts have frequently overruled such prison sentences. 435 Still, thepervasiveness of the village courts as a mechanism for dispute resolution and the relative lack ofaccess to the district courts means that, in effect, women may be at risk to face discriminatory
punishment in how the Adultery Law is applied. In other words, although the Adultery Law is
not on its face discriminatory, the predominant use of customary law in village courts may
discriminate against women, particularly given the discriminatory views and customs for womenprevalent in rural society.436 Such views and customs may reinforce the inferiority of women,
leading to unequal treatment and punishments under the law. Hence while the district courts haveoverruled discriminatory judgments by the village courts, the district courts alone cannot
necessarily be depended upon to protect women from discriminatory rulings.

Discriminatory Punishment related to Trafficking of Women
Sex trafficking is a major issue of concern in PNG that disproportionately punishes
women. Prostitution is outlawed by the Summary Offences Act of 1977. 437 Under section 55 ofthat Act, someone who ―knowingly lives wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution is
guilty of an offence.‖ 438 It is unclear to what extent a woman who is engaged in acts ofprostitution herself may be prosecuted under section 55. Prior to independence, the PNG Law
434

U.S. Department of State, Papua New Guinea 2013 Human Rights Report, at 15, available at
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/220434.pdf.
435
Id.
436
Id.
437
SUMMARY OFFENCES ACT (1977) § 55, available at http://www.paclii.org/cgibin/sinodisp/pg/legis/consol_act/soa1977189/soa1977189.html.
438
Id.
85
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Reform Commission recommended that the purported prostitute herself should not be punished;rather, only those who profited off of her should face criminal sanctions.439 However, the court,
in a case that soon arose after the passage of the Summary Offences Act, held that the plain
language of section 55 made clear that the alleged prostitutes themselves could be prosecuted
because there was no reason to exclude them as a person who was living on the earnings ofprostitution.440 A subsequent case, however, distinguished the first one on a finding that although
the women in the second case had engaged in sex acts in exchange for money, there was noevidence that they had any ―work history‖ in prostitution, and therefore were not living on theearnings of prostitution.441 As a result, the current case law in PNG is unclear as to whether―one-off‖ transactions involving acts of prostitution are prosecutable. However, the case law
appears quite clear that individuals, including the alleged prostitutes themselves, that are
principally living off of earnings from prostitution may face criminal punishment.
This means that for many vulnerable women, particularly in the sex industry, may findthemselves facing criminal charges and punishment for being victims of sex trafficking. In its
2014 Trafficking in Persons Report, the U.S. Department of State voiced concern that since the
PNG government is not equipped to effectively identify victims of trafficking, some victims
could have been prosecuted under the country‘s anti-prostitution laws. 442 Additionally, thegovernment has deported foreign trafficking victims to countries where they could face

439

Karen Fletcher and Bomal Gonapa, Decriminalisation of Prostitution in Papua New Guinea, in CIVICINSECURITY: LAW, ORDER AND HIV IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA (2011), available at
http://press.anu.edu.au/apps/bookworm/view/Civic+Insecurity%3A+Law,+Order+and+HIV+in+Papua+New+Guine
a/5631/ch05.xhtml.
440
Id.
441
Id.
442
U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report 2014, available at
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2014/226796.htm.
86
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women―hardship or retribution.‖ 443 Trafficking-related crimes are also commonly not prosecuted incriminal courts but are instead referred to village courts, where the majority of magistrates are
male and customary law, which largely discriminates against women, is applied (as discussed
above). 444 In 2015, while some victims received compensation from the trafficker in village
courts, no offenders were served prison sentences.445
Therefore, instead of assisting victims, these policies treat them as criminals or fail toprovide appropriate relief. As a result, women who are trafficked in PNG face treatment by thestate that could significantly harm them.

Recommendations
1. Implement policies to protect women accused of witchcraft, including: providing policewith greater resources and training; conducting education campaigns to change attitudes
about sorcery; and reviewing laws and institutions that legitimize sorcery killings.
2. Improve communications between the central government and the village courts in orderto ensure greater uniformity with national laws and international obligations by thevillage courts.
3. Abolish or revise the law against prostitution to clarify that alleged prostitutes cannot be
prosecuted. Additionally, improve identification mechanisms to quickly and effectively
identify victims of sex trafficking so that they may be assisted instead of prosecuted forviolating the anti-prostitution law.

443

Id.
U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report 2016, available athttps://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2016/258840.htm.
445
Id.
87
444

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenTHE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
Government and Legal System
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy ruled by the House of Saud. 446 The kingdom wasformed in 1932 when ibn Saud unified a dual monarchy then known as the Kingdom of Jejaz and
Nejd, which was itself formerly a British protectorate until 1927.447 In 1992, King Fahd issued
the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia stipulating that the Quran and the Sunna (traditions of Prophet
Muhammad) form its constitution.448 Sharia law serves as the sole basis of the legal system forboth criminal and civil matters,449 and there is no effective penal code. Sentencings are given at
the discretion of the judges in accordance with Sharia law and on the basis of whether the crimeis against God or society.450 Such practice renders criminalization and sentencings inconsistentand unreliable, often resulting in arbitrary punishment. More recently, Saudi Arabia has madesome attempts to reform and modernize the political and legal system to meet international
standards.
Focusing on the field of women‘s rights, for example, the cabinet reshuffling in 2009 saw
appointments of moderate ministers including Saudi Arabia‘s first female deputy minister; in
2015, women were allowed to cast a vote for the first time; and on 24 June 2018 women were

446

Saudi Arabia Profile – Overview, BBC NEWS, 24 Sept. 2015, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/worldmiddle-east-14703476.
447
Jan Michiel Otto, Introduction: Investigating the Role of Sharia in National Law, in SHARIA INCORPORATED: A
COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW OF THE LEGAL SYSTEMS OF TWELVE MUSLIM COUNTRIES IN PAST AND PRESENT, at 36(Jan M. Otto ed., 2010).
448
BASIC LAW OF GOVERNANCE, ROYAL ORDER NO. (A/91), 27 Sha‘ban 1412H dated 1 Mar. 1992, Part One,
Article 1.
449
Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Legal and Judicial Structure, available at https://www.saudiembassy.net/legaland-judicial-structure-0.
450Graeme R Newman, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT AROUND THE WORLD, Oct. 2010, at 352.
88
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenallowed to legally drive.451 In 2017, the country was also voted onto the UN‘s Commission on
the Status of Women in a secret-ballot, 452 and women were allowed access to government
services, including education and healthcare, without the need for the consent of their guardian.
The most recent and ongoing reform is called Saudi Vision 2030, which calls for aregulatory review. However, the regulation review is mainly limited to the field of corporate andproperty law, a focus which seems to be unchanged over the duration of the last decade. 453
Therefore, although there have been moderate improvements in women‘s status in the country,
they still face discrimination in the legal system in ways such as having two women‘s testimony
considered as equivalent to that of one man only.454 In fact, despite modernization efforts, genderequality in the country still only ranked 138 out of 144 countries in the World Economic
Forum‘s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report.455

Human Rights Obligations under International Law
Saudi Arabia has ratified several human rights treaties, including Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). However, the country
made a reservation that, in the event of a conflict between the terms of CEDAW and norms of
451

Julian Borger, Saudi Arabia Appoints First Female Minister, THE GUARDIAN, 16 Feb. 2009, available athttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/feb/16/saudi-cabinet-woman-minister. Saudi Arabia‘s Women Vote inElection for the First Time, BBC NEWS, 12 Dec. 2015, available at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east35075702.
452
UN Economic and Social Council, Launching 2017 Coordination Segment, Economic and Social Council Adopts
10 Decisions, Elects Subsidiary Body Members amid Debate on NGO Participation, ECOSOC/6824, 19 Apr. 2017,
available at https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/ecosoc6824.doc.htm.
453
Id. Dr Nizar Bin Obaid Madani (Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Saudi Arabia‘s Speech,
Human Rights Commission, 61st Session, 15 Mar. 2005, available at
http://www.mofa.gov.sa/sites/mofaen/KingdomForeignPolicy/HumanRights/Pages/ArticleID20164141514592.aspx.
454
IBP, Inc., KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA CRIMINAL LAWS, REGULATIONS AND PROCEDURES HANDBOOK (2015), at
101.
455
World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report 2017, available at http://
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2017.pdf.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Islamic law, Saudi Arabia would have no obligation to follow the contradictory CEDAW
terms.456 It also made a reservation to the right of women to have equal rights as men regarding
the nationality of their children, and one on agreeing to refer disputes to arbitration and the ICJ
for resolution. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia is not a party to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR) nor the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR).
It is also stated in the Basic Law that provisions of any international human rights
agreement approved by royal decree shall be directly applicable in the national courts of Saudi
Arabia. In reality, however, such international agreements have no primacy over the country‘s
Sharia laws and in fact the application of these practices in its court has yet been recorded.457

Zina (Adultery)
Zina is a crime punishable in Saudi Arabia, and Sharia law stipulates that it applies toboth men and women. According to the sura where the law and the definition of zina have been
derived from, unlike the Western concept of adultery, zina does not only refer to a married man
or woman having an affair outside of their marriage but also sexual intercourse between an
unmarried man and unmarried woman.
While any official data regarding the gender ratio of conviction for zina is unavailable
due to the government‘s secrecy, as far as published sources are concerned, most of such
456

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women urged Saudi Arabia to consider thewithdrawal of its general reservation, noting that a delegation of Islam specialists assured the Committee that there
is no conflict between obligations under CEDAW and Sharia law. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women, Concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women,
CEDAW/C/SAU/CO./2, 8 Apr. 2008, at 2.
457
Yakin Ertürk, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women,its Causes and Consequences,
Mission to Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Council, Doc A/HRC/11/6/Add.3, 14 Apr. 2009.
90
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenconvictions are made against women. A major factor behind this is the customs surrounding
marriage in Saudi Arabia. First of all, polygamy is legalized in Saudi Arabia under Sharia law.
This allows for men to have more than one sexual partner as a legal wife and thus avoid being
accused for zina, while women are left with no such option. Furthermore, it is a norm in Saudi
Arabia to have arranged marriages prepared and granted by a woman‘s ‗guardian‘ against her
will.458 As such, it is more likely for women to be discontented with their marriage life.
There are also several factors preventing women from freely filing for divorce. While
there is a stigma for both men and women getting a divorce, it is much easier for men to divorce
than women. One dimension of the issue concerns the legal process for divorce. For men to
initiate a divorce, they only need to submit to a judge and will not be asked to present a reason
for the action. However, for women, their available grounds for divorce are highly limited, andalso there are negative effects of divorcing for women which contribute to their reluctance infiling for it.
Sharia law stipulates that when a woman initiates a divorce, she does not receive any
alimony, property, or income that is in her husband‘s name and may even be required to returnthe mahr (dowery). 459 Such regulations leave women economically vulnerable after divorce.
Furthermore, they will also most likely lose the custody of their children excepting the very
young. 460 Besides these discriminations in the legal procedure, there is a deep-rooted stigma
against divorce as a result of which divorced women also often alienated from their family,

458

Khaleda Rahman, 'My family will kill me': Saudi woman, 24, fleeing to Australia to 'escape a forced marriage'
makes desperate plea for help after she was held in the Philippines for 13 hours and deported, DAILY MAIL, 16 Apr.
2017, available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4415706/Saudi-woman-fleeing-Australia-forcedkingdom.html.
459
Mahr is a legally required dower from the husband to wife at the time of marriage.
460
Sherifa Zuhur, SAUDI ARABIA (2011), at 228.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

workplace, and society, hindering their welfare even further. 461 Due to such undesirable
complications of divorce, women may maintain their marital status even for unhappy or abusive
marriage. This, in turn, renders women‘s risk of being convicted for zina much higher than theirmale counterparts.
In 2005, a married Sri Lankan maid living in Saudi Arabia was found to have engaged insexual intercourse with another Sri Lankan migrant living in the country. 462 Both were convictedof adultery but their sentences differed greatly. The unmarried male offender was given 100
lashings while the woman was sentenced to death by stoning due to her marital status. Although
the woman‘s sentence was later withdrawn and reduced after an appeal by the Sri Lankan
government, this case explicitly illustrates the way in which one‘s marital status has an
unreasonably large influence on sentencing in Saudi Arabia. 463 With various obstacles toinitiating a divorce, female offenders thus stand a higher risk of being given much harsher
sentences than male offenders. Furthermore, convictions and sentencing for zina are carried out
even without the required number of eyewitnesses (four) under Sharia law, 464 which further
demonstrates arbitrary enforcement of the crime.

Discriminatory Punishment related to Rape Cases
While Sharia law criminalizes rape, actual convictions are rare due to the necessary
number of witness testimonies. According to the Quran, a rape victim requires four witnesses to

461

Id.
Sophie Jane, Saudi Arabia Sentences Maid to Death by Stoning for Adultery, DAILY MAIL, 28 Nov. 2005,
available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3337297/Saudi-Arabia-sentences-married-maid-death-stoningadultery-man-slept-escape-100-lashes.html.
463
Saudi Arabia ‗Spares‘ Sri Lankan Maid in Adultery Case, BBC NEWS, 23 Dec. 2015, available at
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35166951.
464
Ahmed Affi & Hassan Affi, CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION OF ISLAMIC LAW (2014), 99.
92
462

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womentestify for a conviction.465 However, a woman‘s testimony is considered worth only half of aman‘s, and typically only the perpetrator(s) and the victim were present at the scene, the formerof which will typically not testify. This is relevant to gender discriminatory punishment to theextent that, when the (typically female) victim fails to present four witnesses and the perpetrator
is not their husband, the victim is considered as confessing to zina and punished accordingly.466
Even in cases proven to be rape, victims may still be punished for either having a sexualintercourse with an unrelated man or for simply being in the company of unrelated men(khalwa).467
Thus, rape cases are inappropriately mingled with adultery crimes, and women often fallvictim to arbitrary and double punishment for making rape accusations without sufficientevidence, once in seeing their attackers go unpunished and again in being punished for admitting
adultery. 468 In 2009, a 23-year-old woman who was gang-raped by five men and became
pregnant after the incident was brought before the court. Although the nature of the confession is
unclear, it is claimed that she eventually ―confessed‖ to having a ―forced intercourse‖ with theattackers. The judge at the District Court in Jeddah then ruled that she had committed adultery
and sentenced her to a year in prison and a flogging after she delivered the child.469

465

Id.
Id.
467
Khalwa means to be alone in the company of a member of the opposite sex who she is not related to and ispunishable under Sharia law. This is considered a pre-emptive measure against zina. However, the definition isextremely vague and often results in arbitrary punishment.
468
The Special Rapporteur on violence against women also expresses concern about rape victims‘ fear of being
punished for adultery should they bring rape complaints. Yakin Ertürk, Report of the Special Rapporteur on
Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, Mission to Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Council, Doc
A/HRC/11/6/Add.3, 14 Apr. 2009, at 47.
469
Liz Hazelton, Saudi Judge Sentences Pregnant Gang-rape Victim to 100 Lashes for Committing Adultery, DAILY
MAIL, 11 Feb. 2009, available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1141267/Saudi-judge-sentencespregnant-gang-rape-victim-100-lashes-committing-adultery.html.
93
466

Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenAnother well-known rape case in Saudi Arabia reported in 2007, referred to as the ―Qatif
girl‖ case, illustrates the relationship between rape claims and discriminatory punishment of
women. It involved a then-19-year-old girl gang-raped by seven men when she was alone in the
car with her former boyfriend to retrieve a picture of her so as not to upset her newlywed
husband. Both the girl and the male companion were raped repeatedly. At the court, rather thaninvestigating the rape case, the judges interrogated the girl about her relationship with the man
she was with at the time of the incident.470 As a result, the attackers were only convicted of
kidnapping because the act of rape could not be proven, despite the fact that video images of theact had been presented to the judges. On this basis, the attackers received one to five years inprison and 80 to 1000 lashes. The victim was also sentenced to 90 lashes for committing khalwa,
despite the significant disparity between the victim‘s and her attackers‘ crimes.471 A number ofjudges also reported thinking that the victim deserved harsher punishment, including the death
penalty, for violating the gender segregation law and leaving the house without telling her
husband.472 After the victim made an appeal and complaint to the media, the court increased her
sentence to 200 lashes and six months in jail. And in a follow up to the court ruling, the Saudi
justice minister made a statement saying that the assaulted girl is a ―married woman who
confessed to having an affair with the man she was caught with‖, which was factually incorrect,
in order to justify their ruling.473

470

Richard Pendlebury, My Harrowing Story, by the Teenage Girl Who was Sentenced to 200 Lashes after Being
Gang Raped in Saudi Arabia, DAILY MAIL, 30 Nov. 2007, available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article498849/My-harrowing-story-teenage-girl-sentenced-200-lashes-gang-raped-Saudi-Arabia.html.
471
Vicky Baker, Rape Victim Sentenced to 200 Lashes and Six Months in Jail, DAILY MAIL, 17 Nov. 2007,
available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/17/saudiarabia.international.
472
Richard Pendlebury, My Harrowing Story, by the Teenage Girl Who was Sentenced to 200 Lashes after Being
Gang Raped in Saudi Arabia, DAILY MAIL, 30 Nov. 2007, available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article498849/My-harrowing-story-teenage-girl-sentenced-200-lashes-gang-raped-Saudi-Arabia.html.
473
BBC, Saudi Rape Victim ‗Having Affair‘, 26 Nov. 2007, at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7112999.stm.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

Honor Killings and Crimes

Honor crimes involve punishment by private actors, often family members, against
women for perceived violations of family honor. To continue the case discussed above, in
addition to the punishment the Qatif girl received from the court following her rape allegations,she also faced constant physical violence from her brother who blamed her for the assault andeven attempted to kill her for bringing dishonor to the family. 474 Although her brother‘s attempt
failed, it was not an isolated case. Women who take certain actions such as rejecting an arranged
marriage, divorcing, running away, committing zina or khalwa, can be punished by family
members who deem their act dishonoring the family.
In 2008, a girl chatting with a boy on Facebook was beat and killed by her father forcommitting a khalwa crime. Rather than targeting the father, influential individuals including
religious scholars475 argued that the problem was the prevalence of Facebook and the resulting
behaviors of girls acting ―badly‖ on it, which found support among the public.476 No mention isfound of the father‘s punishment for the murder. A year after this case, two sisters were also
killed by their brother after they were released from a women‘s shelter in Riyadh, where they
were detained for committing khalwa.477 There is also no report of the brother being tried in thiscase, despite evidence of murder. In another case in 2010, a Saudi woman named Alisha Ali was

474

Richard Pendlebury, My Harrowing Story, by the Teenage Girl Who was Sentenced to 200 Lashes after Being
Gang Raped in Saudi Arabia, DAILY MAIL, 30 Nov. 2007, available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article498849/My-harrowing-story-teenage-girl-sentenced-200-lashes-gang-raped-Saudi-Arabia.html.
475
Religious scholars in Saudi Arabia hold a respected position not only in the society but also in the legal system as
they are the ones with the qualification to interpret Quran to give religious rulings.
476
Arab Media & Society, Al-Arabiya: ―Preacher Demands Blocking of Facebook due to Saudi Women Access…‖,
29 Mar. 2008, available at http://www.arabmediasociety.com/?article=654.
477
Saudi Religious Police Blamed for ‗Honour Killings‘, THE JERUSALEM POST, 13 July 2009, available at
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Saudi-religious-police-blamed-for-honor-killings.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

forced by her brothers to marry five men.478 When she refused a marriage or divorced, she waslocked up in a room and threatened with violence or death threats by her brothers. Such private
punishments predominantly affect women, and women are more negatively impacted due to theirvulnerable position in society and in the family. However, the government of Saudi Arabia has
been inactive in the prevention and punishment of honor killings and crimes.

Mutawa (Religious Police)
Mutawa is the religious police in Saudi Arabia deployed by the Committee for the
Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. The committee is an official body entrustedwith the enforcement of Sharia law in the country. In Saudi Arabia, Sharia law not only covers
criminal cases but many other areas of life it covers, from behavior to dress.479 Mutawa‘s task,
therefore, is to uphold Islamic morality, customs and traditions among Saudi citizens in theireveryday life by patrolling through streets, shopping malls, and sometimes even into privatehouseholds and on the internet.480 Some gender discriminatory rules mutawa enforce include thestrict dress code and khalwa (as well as women driving until the law was recently changed), allbased on religious scholars‘ interpretation of Sharia.
While dress code and the rule of khalwa are formally applicable to everyone regardless ofgender, in practice women are more strictly monitored and rebuked for their behavior and thus
more likely than men to face judicial consequences and harassment by mutawa. A dress code
478

Tara Abhasakun, Saudi Still Treats Women as Property, but New Marriage Law is Effort to Pretend They Don‘t,
BORDERLESS, 30 Aug. 2016, available at http://www.borderlessnewsonline.com/saudi-still-treats-women-asproperty-but-new-marriage-law-is-effort-to-pretend-they-dont-3/.
479
Shahid M. Shahidullah, ―Islamic Jurisprudence, Shari‘a Law, Criminal Justice in Saudi Arabia‖ in COMPARATIVECRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS (2012), at 403.
480
Jeanette M. English, INFIDEL BEHIND THE PARADOXICAL VEIL: A WESTERN WOMAN‘S EXPERIENCE IN SAUDIARABIA (2011), at xiii.
96
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenalso exists for men in Saudi Arabia, but its inobservance is far less punished than women. The
dress code for men is also more lenient than that for women as they have the freedom to choose
between the traditional thobe (robe) and western clothing, such as long pants, so long as theirprivate parts are loosely covered. This partially accounts for the reason why there are less casesof men being punished in regards to dress code, while women are not only more frequently
punished but they are also faced with punishments as heavy as lashings for not observing the
dress code. Furthermore, the grounds on which mutawa can question women and eventually takethem in for interrogation and/or punishment is highly arbitrary.481
In 2015, a woman was harassed by six mutawa for wearing eye makeup, which themutawa considered as ―provocative‖.482 There is no mention of eye makeup being against thereligious teachings, demonstrating that mutawa can target, report, and charge people at theirdiscretion. In another instance, a woman named Malak Al Shehri posted a picture of herself
without an abaya (the traditional dress). The religious police immediately filed a report to detain
her, and she also faced the possibility of being lashed as a punishment.483
Women also face discriminatory punishment by mutawa for the alleged crime of khalwa.
The crime is arbitrarily enforced as it prohibits any form of ―secluded‖ interaction between
unrelated men and women which the mutawa regard as possibility leading to zina in their481

This was before mutawa was deprived of their authority for such conduct. There has yet to be any cases since
they resumed their operation in 2017.
482
Chris Pleasance, Brave Saudi Woman Turns the Tables on Religious Police who Hound Her for Wearing Eye
Make-up by Filming Them until They Cower Away, DAILY MAIL, 17 July 2015, available at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3164981/Brave-Saudi-woman-turns-tables-religious-police-houndwearing-eye-make-filming-cower-away.html.
483
No follow-up report was made of her sentencing.
97
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womendiscretion. While technically both men and women are to be punished on equal terms for thiscrime, in practice women receive harsher treatment than men by the mutawa.484
In 2008, an American businesswoman was arrested by mutawa for having coffee with amale colleague in a café downstairs from their workplace. While the man was simply arrested
and later released, the woman was strip-searched and forced to sign a false confession in police
custody.485 A judge reprimanded the woman for her clothing and for travelling alone without aguardian. Additionally, a 75-year-old woman was convicted of khalwa the following year forbeing alone with two young men. The mutawa disregarded their appeal that one of the men was
her nephew and they were there to deliver loaves of bread to the woman. With no considerationof her age, the woman was sentenced to 40 lashings, four months in jail, and deportation.
In most cases, the woman is considered at fault for the commission of khalwa. Typicalexplanations for khalwa allegations include a woman not respecting the dress code, not being in
the company of a male guardian, working in a mix-gender environment, and so on. Women areblamed for ―seducing‖ men by not observing these rules. Harassment by mutawa was so
common that in 2016, the government decided to limit their power to that of reporting suspicious
behavior and acting ―kindly and gently‖, rather than having the authority to arrest, detain, or ask
for identification. 486 However, mutawa restarted their work in June 2017 to respond tocomplaints of ―creeping immorality‖, calling for their future behavior to be closely watched.

484

The Special Rapporteur on violence against women notes this issue in a 2008 report on Saudi Arabia. Yakin
Ertürk, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, Mission to
Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Council, Doc A/HRC/11/6/Add.3, 14 Apr. 2009, at 48.
485
Bonnie Malkin, Mother Arrested for Having a Coffee in Starbucks, THE TELEGRAPH, 20 Feb. 2008, available at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1579285/Mother-arrested-for-having-coffee-in-Starbucks.html.
486
Saudi Arabia Strips Religious Police of Arresting Power, AL-JAZEERA, 14 Apr. 2016, at http://www.
aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/saudi-arabia-strips-religious-police-arresting-power-160413141418824.html.
98
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenRecommendations
1. Review the source of the current judicial rulings and establish and enforce an explicit andconsistent penal code that respects international standards of penal protection.
2. Ensure that the penal code and extra-judicial practices do not violate international humanrights protections.
3. Avoid punishing women involved in or alleging having been raped.
4. Establish a law criminalizing honor crimes, and treat the unjustified killing of women byfamily members equally to comparable murder claims.
5. Establish and enforce measures to prevent abuses of power by officers of the Committee
for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

99
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of WomenREPUBLIC OF YEMEN
Government and Legal System
Yemen is a republic which was formed in 1990, following the union of the former North
Yemen and South Yemen.487 Since 2011, the country has been put in a state of political flux,
following a revolution that led to the removal of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.488 Ever
since 2012, it is the poorest country in the Middle East.489 Between 2013 and 2014, a National
Dialogue Conference (hereinafter ―NDC‖) was held in order to facilitate the transition to a new
government.490 Among other things, the NDC‘s deliberations resulted in a new draft constitution,
an affirmative action-style quota system for women leadership, and assurances of greater rights
for women in the new constitution.491 However, in late 2014, a Shi‘a group known as the Houthis
took control of the capital Sana‘a.492 In early 2015, they rejected the draft constitution andannounced a takeover of the government.493 Meanwhile, the deposed government of President
Hadi fled to Aden.494 Conflict between the separatist Houthis and pro-Hadi government forces
487

United States Department of State – Office of the Historian, A Guide to the United States‘ History of
Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Yemen, available athttps://history.state.gov/countries/yemen.
488
Brian Whitaker, Yemen‘s Ali Abdullah Saleh Resigns – But It Changes Little, THE GUARDIAN, 24 Nov. 2011,
available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/nov/24/yemen-ali-abdullah-saleh-resigns.
489
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA in Middle East and North Africa –Yemen, available at http://www.unocha.org/romena/about-us/about-ocha-regional/yemen.
490
Ali Ibrahim Al-Moshki, National Dialogue Conference Concludes, YEMEN TIMES, 28 Jan. 2014, available at
http://www.yementimes.com/en/1750/news/3398/National-Dialogue-Conference-concludes.htm.
491
Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies, Outcomes of Yemen‘s National Dialogue Conference: A Step toward
Conflict Resolution and State Building, 27 Feb. 2014, available at http://english.dohainstitute.org/release/c5b3a33b644d-47f8-9e03-85fcb852c899.
492
How Yemen‘s Capital Sanaa was Seized by Houthi Rebels, BBC NEWS, 27 Sept. 2014, available at
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-29380668.
493
Menan Khater, Houthis Bomb Presidential Palace Opposing Proposed Constitutional Draft, DAILY NEWS, 21
Jan. 2015, available at http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2015/01/21/houthis-bomb-presidential-palace-opposingproposed-constitutional-draft/.
494
Mohamed Ghobari & Mohammed Mukhashaf, Yemen‘s Hadi Flees to Aden and Says he is still President,
REUTERS, 21 Feb. 2015, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-securityidUSKBN0LP08F20150221.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

and divided control of the country has continued into 2018. Given the instability in Yemen, thecurrent state of the government remains uncertain. The constitutional status of the draft
constitution is unclear as well.
Regardless, the legal and de facto status of women is a matter of concern. Since 2006 (thefirst year the study was released), Yemen has ranked last of all countries surveyed by the World
Economic Forum‘s Gender Gap Index.495 Additionally, under the constitution enacted in 1994
(hereinafter ―1994 Constitution‖), Islam is the official religion of the state and Sharia law isconsidered the source of all legislation.496 This remains the same under the new draft constitution(hereinafter ―2015 Constitution‖).497 Although Article 31 of the 1994 Constitution declared that―[w]omen are the sisters of men. They have rights and duties, which are guaranteed and assigned
by Sharia and stipulated by law,‖ this is the only time that women were directly mentioned.498
Yemenis and the international community have also raised serious concerns about the status of
women since the Houthi takeover. While supporting women‘s rights is the Houthis‘ official
political stance, reports have emerged detailing misogynistic attitudes and behavior by Houthi
militants in Houthi-controlled areas.499
The 2015 Constitution aims to better protect women‘s rights. In particular, article 57
commits the state to the welfare of women, requiring it to enact laws protecting and advancing

495

World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report, 2014, at 373, available at
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GGGR14/GGGR_CompleteReport_2014.pdf.
496
YEMEN CONSTITUTION (1994), arts. 2 & 3, available at http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/3fc4c1e94.pdf.
497
YEMEN CONSTITUTION (2015), arts. 2 & 4, available at http://www.constitutionnet.org/files/yemendraft_constitution-15jan2015-_english.pdf.
498
YEMEN CONSTITUTION (1994), art. 31, available at http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/3fc4c1e94.pdf.
499
Fareed Al-Homaid, What does the Houthis‘ Rise Mean for Women? (Part 1), YEMEN TIMES, 2 Mar. 2015,
available at http://www.yementimes.com/en/1864/report/4934/What-does-the-Houthis%E2%80%99-rise-mean-forwomen-(Part-1).htm; see also Fareed Al-Homaid, What does the Houthis‘ Rise Mean for Women? (Part II), YEMENTIMES, 4 Mar. 2015, available at http://www.yementimes.com/en/1865/report/4945/What-does-theHouthis%E2%80%99-rise-mean-for-women--(Part-II).htm.
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the rights of women, while also eliminating ―cultural and social norms that demean the dignity ofwomen.‖500 Article 305 also creates the National Commission for Women, which inter alia, is
responsible for proposing public policies to advance women‘s rights and ensuring that the rights
of women are implemented and protected.501 In terms of penal laws, the Yemeni government
codified its criminal code in 1994. However, it retains much Islamic influence and is largely a
codification of Sharia law.502

Human Rights Obligations under International Law
Yemen is bound by a number of international obligations. Both constitutions require
Yemen to follow the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of the
Arab League, and other ―generally recognized‖ international law principles.503 Yemen is also
party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW).504 However, Yemen made a reservation to article 29(1) of CEDAW on the dispute
resolution process in cases disagreement over the interpretation or application of the treaty.
Yemen has also ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and theInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).505
500

YEMEN CONSTITUTION (2015), art. 57, available at http://www.constitutionnet.org/files/yemendraft_constitution-15jan2015-_english.pdf.
501
Id. at art. 305.
502
RUDOLPH PETERS, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN ISLAMIC LAW: THEORY AND PRACTICE FROM THE SIXTEENTH TO
THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, 143 (Cambridge University Press, 2005), available athttps://books.google.co.jp/books?id=7EAsmttzXjcC.
503
YEMEN CONSTITUTION (1994), art. 6, available at http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/3fc4c1e94.pdf; YEMENCONSTITUTION (2015), art. 10, available at http://www.constitutionnet.org/files/yemen-draft_constitution15jan2015-_english.pdf.
504
United Nations Treaty Collection, List of Signatories to the CEDAW, available athttps://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&lang=en#64.
505
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 Dec. 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171 & 1057 U.N.T.S. 407,
entered into force 23 Mar. 1976; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 Dec. 1966,
993 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force 3 Jan. 1976..
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Honor Crimes
Honor crimes continue to be a major issue for women in Yemen. Article 232 of thecurrent Penal Code provides leniency for honor killings by stipulating that a ―husband‖ whocatches his ―wife‖ or a female relative committing adultery and who subsequently kills or injures
her is liable at most to one year of imprisonment or a fine.506 This treatment towards honor
killers stands in contrast to how murder is normally treated, which falls under qisas and ispunishable by death.507 This constitutes explicit gender discrimination against women inpunishment: if a woman kills her spouse under such circumstances she will be punished, but aman would not be. The recognition of leniency for honor killings in the Penal Code allows men
to commit honor killings of women with impunity. Providing leniency for such honor killings
encourages extrajudicial murders of women as a form of punishment for women who havecommitted infidelity, especially because the Penal Code provisions protect only men who
commit the crime.

Khilwa (Seclusion with a Man)
Another common crime for which Yemeni women are punished is khilwa (being alone
with a man who is not a relative). Even though khilwa is not an official crime under the Penal
Code, Article 273 (criminalizing ―any act which conflicts with public ethics‖) has frequently

506

REPUBLICAN DECREE FOR LAW NO 12 FOR THE YEAR 1994 CONCERNING CRIMES AND PENALTIES, art. 232,
available at http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/83557/92354/F1549605860/YEM83557.pdf.
507
Qisas are a category of crime including murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary killing, intentional physicalinjury, and unintentional physical injury. For crimes involving intentional killing and/or physical injury, the victim
or the victim‘s family is entitled to compensation (retribution) in the form of retributive justice (i.e., death aspunishment for murder), or monetary compensation. See Oxford Islamic Studies, Qisas,
http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1931?_hi=3&_pos=5.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenbeen invoked in order to punish women for committing khilwa.508 Because terms such as ―public
ethics‖ are loosely defined under article 273, it can be broadly applied to punish women forvarious crimes based on traditional norms. This may lead to inconsistencies in application of thelaw, as well as enforcement of discriminatory rules such as khilwa, leading women to face
imprisonment or fines for acts that are not actually crimes.509 Since the Houthi takeover, reportsby the Yemen Times have indicated a number of incidents involving Houthi soldiers harassing
and detaining women for failing to adhere to traditional norms such as being in public without amale relative.510 For instance, multiple women came forward to report harassment from the
Houthis for failing to wear traditional dress, as well as for leaving home without a mahram (malerelative).511

Arbitrary Detention
Many Yemeni women face discriminatory policies and laws that lead to their arbitrary
detention. As discussed above, vague language in article 273 of the Penal Code (acts against
public ethics) permits arbitrary or inconsistent interpretation, exposing women to punishment
and arbitrary detention for honor-related crimes and other purported crimes. The law against
prostitution, articles 277 of the Penal Code, which punishes women by up to three years

508

See REPUBLICAN DECREE FOR LAW NO 12 FOR THE YEAR 1994 CONCERNING CRIMES AND PENALTIES, art. 273,
available at http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/83557/92354/F1549605860/YEM83557.pdf(―Disgraceful act in violation of chastity is any act which conflicts with public ethics or loosing chastity including
undressing and intentional exposure of the genital organs and the saying and gesticulation violating the chastity andcontradictory to good conduct.‖).
509
Joint Shadow Report to CEDAW Commission at United Nations by civil society organizations in Yemen, Aug.
2002, at 6, available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/ngos/SAFHRYemen41.pdf.
510
Fareed Al-Homaid, What does the Houthis‘ Rise Mean for Women? (Part 1), YEMEN TIMES, 2 Mar. 2015,
available at http://www.yementimes.com/en/1864/report/4934/What-does-the-Houthis%E2%80%99-rise-mean-forwomen-(Part-1).htm.
511
Id.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womenimprisonment under article 278,512 has also led to arbitrary arrests of women due to its
vagueness. It broadly defines prostitution as committing an act ―touching the honor … for the
purpose of spoiling the morals of others or gaining thereof.‖513 Under the law, women have beenarrested for only walking with a man in the street or walking in the street at night.514 The antiprostitution law is thus discriminatory; in application, its use has been primarily to prosecute
women for acts for which men would not be punished.515 Such arrests are particularly
problematic because of the social stigma associated with women who have been imprisoned.
Larger Yemeni society tends to reject previously imprisoned women, as imprisonment is
considered shameful.516 Some Yemenis may cast-off such women regardless of their innocence,suggesting a cultural element to the rejection.517 Oftentimes, families will abandon theirimprisoned female relatives.518 As a result, women who have been detained often have nowhere
to go after their release. As a result, many women, particularly prostitutes, may become repeat
offenders, being forced to support themselves by committing the very crimes they were accusedof originally.519

512

Id. at art. 278.
REPUBLICAN DECREE FOR LAW NO 12 FOR THE YEAR 1994 CONCERNING CRIMES AND PENALTIES, art. 277,
available at http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/83557/92354/F1549605860/YEM83557.pdf.
514
Majida Rasul, Detention of Women in Yemen: Procedures and Facilities, SAFERWORLD, Dec. 2014, at 3,
available at http://www.saferworld.org.uk/downloads/pubdocs/detention-of-women-in-yemen---procedures-andfacilities.pdf.
515
Id.
516
Id.
517
See Amal Al-Yarisi, Families in Yemen Shun Female Prisoners, YEMEN TIMES, 30 Apr. 2012, available at
http://www.yementimes.com/en/1568/culture/785/Families-in-Yemen-shun-female-prisoners.htm.
518
United Nations, Country Assessment on Violence against Women: Yemen, 2010, at 10, available at
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/ianwge/taskforces/vaw/Country_Assessment_on_Violence_against_Women_Augu
st_2_2010.pdf.
519
Majida Rasul, Detention of Women in Yemen: Procedures and Facilities, SAFERWORLD, Dec. 2014, at 3,
available at http://www.saferworld.org.uk/downloads/pubdocs/detention-of-women-in-yemen---procedures-andfacilities.pdf.
105
513

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Zina (Adultery)
Accusations of adultery and its repercussions are still an issue for women in Yemen.
Adultery is outlawed in Yemen. According to the Penal Code, if the adulterer and adulteress are
not married, it is punishable by one hundred strokes of whipping; if the adulterer or adulteress ismarried, then the punishment is stoning.520 Article 266 of the Penal Code, however, does provide
a number of mitigating factors that may neutralize an accusation of adultery, mostly revolving
around evidentiary issues.521 Another issue for consideration is that under article 15 of Yemen‘s
Personal Status Law, a marriage contract is not legally valid until a woman‘s male guardian has
given his permission by signing the contract.522 This means that until a male guardian gives
permission for the marriage, a couple can be charged with committing adultery under the Penal
Code. Women who marry against their guardian‘s will can thus face adultery charges at theirguardian‘s discretion.
The situation is improving but still has room to improve. While stoning remains an‗official‘ punishment, in practice it has not been employed for centuries.523 Nevertheless, thevagueness of various laws, the inconsistency of their application, and the persistence oftraditional norms means that women continue to face discriminatory punishment under thecountry‘s adultery laws. For example, a woman who elopes with a man without her maleguardian‘s (father, uncle, or brother if not married) permission could face adultery charges under
the Penal Code. As stated above, this is due to the provision in Yemen‘s Personal Status Law
520

REPUBLICAN DECREE FOR LAW NO 12 FOR THE YEAR 1994 CONCERNING CRIMES AND PENALTIES, art. 263,
available at http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/83557/92354/F1549605860/YEM83557.pdf.
521
Id., art. 266.
522
Elham Manea, Yemen, in WOMEN‘S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA: PROGRESS AMIDRESISTANCE, 9 (Freedom House / Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 2010), available athttps://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/inline_images/Yemen.pdf.
523
U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Report on Human Rights in Yemen, 1 Feb. 2012, at 5,
available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/docs/ngos/HRW_Yemen_HRC104.pdf.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women

that requires a male guardian‘s permission before a marriage can be considered legal. Because ofthat rule, women lack freedom of marriage in Yemen; if a woman fails to secure her maleguardian‘s acceptance, she could be punished as an adulteress.

Cases of Discriminatory Punishment against Women
Although certain honor-related crimes such as khilwa may not be specifically addressedin the Penal Code, because of the vague provisions such as articles 273 and 232, women may
face discriminatory punishment anyway. Example cases include:● In 2013, a father killed his fifteen-year-old daughter after allegedly catching her on the phonewith her fiancé without permission.524 According to a statement by the Yemeni government,
the claim that the daughter was on the phone was merely a pretext for the murder.525 Article
232 of the Penal Code makes it easier to commit these types of extrajudicial killings by
allowing perpetrators to claim they were committing an honor killing, thereby receiving a
lesser punishment.
● The Houthi-controlled areas may be experiencing an increase in discriminatory policies
against women. According to an article from the Yemen Times, multiple women from
Houthi-controlled Sana‘a have reported harassment from Houthi soldiers for failing to wear
traditional dress or for leaving home without a mahram (male relative).526 Reports have also
emerged of women being detained by Houthis for being in the company of men who are not

524

Mohammed Jamjoom, Hakim Almasmari, & Saad Abedine, Yemeni girl, 15, ‗burned to death by father‘, CNN,
24 Oct. 2013, available at http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/24/world/meast/yemeni-girl-burned-to-death-by-father.
525
Id.
526
Fareed Al-Homaid, What does the Houthis‘ Rise Mean for Women? (Part 1), YEMEN TIMES, 2 Mar. 2015,
available at http://www.yementimes.com/en/1864/report/4934/What-does-the-Houthis%E2%80%99-rise-mean-forwomen-(Part-1).htm.
107
Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Womentheir relatives.527 Houthi rule therefore raises concerns that discriminatory policies will be
imposed against women who fail to adhere to traditional norms.

Recommendations
1. Review and repeal all laws and practices that constitute legal and de facto
discriminatory punishment for women. Specifically, criminal provisions such as
articles 232 and 273 should be abolished in order to discourage the arbitrary killings
and arbitrary detention of women.
2. Introduce a non-discriminatory set of laws to assess the punishment of womenconvicted for a wrongdoing.

527

Yara Bayoumy, Yemeni women fear Houthis are restricting their freedoms, REUTERS, 18 Dec. 2014, available at
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2014/12/18/Yemeni-women-fear-Houthis-are-restrictingfreedoms.html.
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Human Rights Now: Discrimination in the Punishment of Women