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The right of women to sit astride







The move comes after leaders from Aceh, the country’s only province ruled by strict sharia law, drafted a series of new bills including banning women from wearing tight trousers, stoning adulterers and flogging homosexuals. Local women’s rights activists have rejected the proposed ban “because it completely ignores the safety principles for driving,” said Roslina Rasyid from Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice legal aid in Lhokseumawe. “Sitting astride guarantees better safety, and I’m sure most people can only side-saddle for 15 minutes. What if the person is overweight and causes an imbalance? It could cause an accident,” she added. National Commission on Violence Against Women activist Andy Yentriyani said the policy was “part of discriminative policies on women in this country in the name of religion and morality”.



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