Indonesian province separates lesbians after fake marriage
A lesbian couple in Aceh, Indonesia have been forcibly separated by the country’s police after one of them posed as a man so they could marry, the BBC reports.
The unnamed women were married a few months ago, but were reported by suspicious neighbours.
They were told by the chief of the Islamic police force that they should be beheaded and burned, but the area does not have yet have laws to deal with homosexuality.
Indonesia’s provinces were given some form of legislative autonomy in 2001. Aceh, a devoutly Muslim area, introduced Sharia law for citizens who follow Islam.
In 2009, human rights groups condemned a planned move to introduce public lashings and imprisonment for homosexuality, but it was never signed into law.
Their marriage was annulled and they have been forced to sign a separation agreement.
Last year, the country’s information minister was censured internationally for joking about HIV/AIDS on Twitter.
