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In Indonesia, Playboy inspires proposals to ban 'pornoaksi'

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 5, 2006

Investigators asked her to explain what she was doing in each of the five photos in her eight-page spread. It made no difference that she didn't pose nude - or that the photos were no more revealing than a lingerie ad.

"Police asked me whether my picture was pornography or not," she recounted. "I said, 'It's not. It's art, definitely art.' "

Playboy's entry has fueled debate over how women should behave in the world's most populous Muslim country - which has been more moderate than most Muslim nations.

A measure before Parliament would ban pornoaksi, or porno action, a newly created offense so broad that it could include wearing a miniskirt or baring a navel. Kissing in public would be punishable by up to five years in prison. Dancing erotically could bring seven years. Exposing body parts that could be deemed erotic would be punishable by as much as 10 years.

"If you wear something sensual or sexy, it will be considered pornography," said Gadis Arivia, a professor of human rights and Western philosophy at the University of Indonesia. "It will criminalize a lot of women in Indonesia."

Opposition to the measure has been especially strong in Bali, the predominantly Hindu island that depends heavily on tourism. At one point, the governor of Bali threatened to secede if the bill was passed.

The threat of having to cover up has stirred moderate and middle-class Indonesians to political action, something that has seldom occurred since President Suharto was ousted and democracy was ushered in eight years ago.

Although more than 85 percent of the population is Muslim, the country is officially secular. But conservative Islam has been gaining ground since Suharto's fall in 1998, and local terrorist cells funded by al-Qaida have carried out a series of deadly bombings against Western targets.

Authorities in the Sumatran province of Aceh and the city of Tangerang on Java have adopted sharia, or Islamic law, leading to harsher treatment of suspected gamblers and prostitutes.

The antipornography bill's sponsors say it has strong support in Parliament, which is roughly 90 percent male. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general, has not stated a position on the issue.

The first Indonesian edition of Playboy sold all 100,000 copies and has become a collector's item, going on eBay for as much as $100. But the controversy cost the magazine most of its advertisers. The price of the next issue will more than double to $10.

[Last modified June 5, 2006, 05:46:45]