In Indonesia, reporting sexual harassment can get a woman jailed – as Baiq Nuril Maknun’s case shows

The 41-year-old school administrator was handed a six-month prison sentence after recording her harasser’s sexually suggestive phone calls

Activists say her case highlights how victims have become compromised by a controversial decade-old electronic communications law

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Baiq Nuril Maknun, who was jailed after she tried to report sexual harassment. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:01am, 17 Jul 2019Updated: 1:43pm, 17 Jul 2019

An Indonesian woman who received a six-month jail sentence for recording a lewd phone call from her boss has been given a reprieve by President Joko Widodo, in a case that has highlighted how women in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation struggle with legal recourse when they are sexually harassed.

Baiq Nuril Maknun, 41, a school administrator from the city of Lombok, an hour’s flight from Bali, is now waiting for the Indonesian parliament to approve Widodo’s decision.

If it is granted, the mother of three would be the first person to push back against Indonesia’s controversial 2008 information and electronic transactions (ITE) law that activists say overreaches and compromises victims of harassment.

The law is vague and gives police broad discretion to decide what types of circulated content can be deemed defamatory and indecent. Past cases in which it has been applied include a woman who shared a meme making fun of a prominent politician’s attempt to avoid anti-corruption investigators and a popular musician being jailed after calling a group of Widodo’s supporters “idiots” in a video.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who has intervened in Nuril’s case. Photo: Reuters

In Nuril’s case, she was given a six-month jail sentence and slapped with a 500 million rupiah (US$35,880) fine by the Supreme Court for recording the school principal’s sexually suggestive phone calls.