Video posted online shows 2 women being beaten, thrown into the sea for allegedly flouting rules by dining in a cafe
A video posted online shows a mob beating a woman for visiting a cafe during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in West Sumatra province of Indonesia on April 8. (Photo: Screengrab)
Rights groups strongly condemned a Muslim mob attack on two women in Indonesia for allegedly eating in a cafe during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and criticized police for not arresting the suspected attackers.
A total of 89 organizations and 122 eminent citizens including Catholic youth groups signed a joint statement on April 19 to slam the incident saying that “persecuting women in the name of religious morality is an act that tramples humanity.”
“In fact, no religion teaches every human being to hurt others. This action occurred because of a shallow and misogynistic religious understanding, which views women as a source of disgrace and slander," the statement read.
The statement came days after a video circulated online showed two women aged 23 and 19 being assaulted by a mob in a cafe in Pesisir Selatan district of West Sumatra province on April 8.
The video was allegedly posted by the perpetrators. It showed two victims being intimidated, kicked, dragged, and thrown into the sea while being verbally abused and threatened with burning. The mob also stripped and sexually abused them.
Novianto Taryono, Pasir Selatan police chief said on April 16 that they had named three suspects after questioning 13 witnesses.
"Persecution and sexual violence are the greatest forms of immorality"
He said the two women were attacked because the mob was angry because they visited the cafe during the holy month of Ramadan.
However, advocacy groups and activists criticized the police for not arresting the suspects and even brought them together with the victims at the police station for mediation.
"Mediation that brings perpetrators together with victims of sexual harassment and violence should not be carried out by the authorities because it will only exacerbate the victim's trauma," the statement said.
The activists demanded the perpetrators be immediately arrested, “because acts of persecution and sexual violence are the greatest forms of immorality, crimes that must be dealt with strictly by law enforcers.”
They also said that the two women were just cafe visitors and "without any fault, they were immediately attacked."
They have also launched a campaign on Change.org, urging the police to arrest the perpetrators immediately.
Such persecution is the result of the imposition of restrictions during the holy month of Ramadan in the Muslim-majority country, they said.
Activists say such rules, which are generally unwritten, increase persecution of minorities.
West Sumatra has seen moral policing and violence in the name of religion in the past.
"Many parties still misunderstand religious teachings"
In 2020, a woman in Pasaman Regency was accused of obscenity by a group of men in a village. The woman was stripped naked and paraded around the village. The incident was videoed and shared on social media.
Such persecution signals that many parties still misunderstand religious teachings, says Petrus Selestinus, a Catholic lawyer and the chairman of a lawyer's forum seeking to protect the national secular ideology called Pancasila.
"Even though visiting entertainment places is prohibited in areas like West Sumatra during Ramadan, it cannot be solved by violence, taking the law into your own hands. There are other civilized ways," he told UCA News.
He emphasized that the constitutional rights of the victims, regardless of their identity, should be protected.
“The perpetrators must receive harsh punishment," he said.
Daniel Awigra, executive director of the Human Rights Working Group said that such persecution occurred because of increasing religious conservatism among Indonesians.
He cited a Pew Research Center survey in 2020 which found 96 percent of respondents in Indonesia saying that belief in God is necessary to be moral and have good values.
In an increasingly conservative Indonesian society, there is a desire to take over public space in the name of religion, he pointed out.
“We can see it through the many regional regulations on decency based on moral interpretation. This is an effort to encourage the public space to be regulated in the domain of sectarian religious interpretation," he said.
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