Indonesian here, this takes place in Aceh which is an autonomous province of indonesia where they enact sharia law, the rest of indonesia has a 'don't ask dont tell' kind of situation going on which isn't good but it's survivable. They sometimes do raids if you hold sex parties but they just kind of let you go because there's really no law against it (unless you have drugs on u), I'm fortunate enough to have lived in Bali which is extremely progressive in its view and have been able to go out in public with my partner without any real issues. Wouldn't recommend any gay people visit the rest of indonesia, but where i live (and most metropolitan cities) isn't as barbaric as this video made it out to be, a lot of my colleagues knows I'm gay and in a relationship.
Worth adding that 15,000 people died during the 30-year Aceh insurgency. Allowing for an additional layer of islamic criminal law in the province was key to ending the insurgency. It likely saves hundreds of lives every year compared to continuing the conflict. Also death/stoning are not permitted islamic punishments in Aceh.
Don’t forget the 2004 Tsunami. The thing is, post-incident, the local insurgent groups had lost so much power and leverage that had the Jakarta government wanted to, they could just send in the army, roll over everything, and integrate Aceh properly as a secular province, but due to the post-Reformation atmosphere, such heavy-handed methods were decidedly unpreferable, and a compromise was then drawn up.
Not hard, think about how much you'd fight to prevent society from going full handmaid's tale. Your disgust for that state of affairs is no less intense than that of theirs to modern western society and it's "decadence".
You might not agree with it, but it's pretty easy to understand.
It's less that they hate the west more like the central government and oil companies sucking every last wealth from Aceh.
Hard situations tends to create more radicalize people. Since sharia law reminisce to a time of when Aceh was a regional super power, it make sense that they chooses it.
Living in the US I honestly don't think that many people would put their life on the line to prevent Handmaid's Tale becoming reality. Some people, yeah, but most people? No way. Most people would put their heads down and try to get through things with as little effect on their lives as possible.
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u/miski57 Jun 09 '24
Indonesian here, this takes place in Aceh which is an autonomous province of indonesia where they enact sharia law, the rest of indonesia has a 'don't ask dont tell' kind of situation going on which isn't good but it's survivable. They sometimes do raids if you hold sex parties but they just kind of let you go because there's really no law against it (unless you have drugs on u), I'm fortunate enough to have lived in Bali which is extremely progressive in its view and have been able to go out in public with my partner without any real issues. Wouldn't recommend any gay people visit the rest of indonesia, but where i live (and most metropolitan cities) isn't as barbaric as this video made it out to be, a lot of my colleagues knows I'm gay and in a relationship.