BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — They emerge at night, raven-haired and zitty, ambling through the city in flip-flops and black T-shirts. Their physiques reflect a diet of instant noodles. Their limbs are inked up with scribbly tattoos.They are young, Muslim and punk. And ever since the raids began, they have been highly paranoid.
In Indonesia’s Aceh, a tropical province governed by Quranic (or Shariah) law, punk rock has become an unofficial crime. Aceh’s ulama, a council of Muslim scholars, would like to make it official: They’ve suggested a qanun, or holy law, that would forbid the “punk-rock lifestyle.”
In the meantime, police have rounded up, shaved and attempted to reform punk rockers in jungle boot camps.
“They are out of sync with Islam,” said Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, deputy mayor of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital. As a local election nears, she has become the face of authorities’ war on punk rock, and she boasts overseeing police raids in her stump speeches.
“The big holes in their ears, it looks weird,” Illiza said. “We don’t want it to spread to the next generation.”
GlobalPost photos: Aceh punks fight the law
GlobalPost video: Why Indonesian kids are crazy for punk
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