Oh the joys of living under Islamic Law!

A teenage girl wearing a jilbab (head scarf) stared sharply at Banda Aceh's sharia enforcement officer Raja Dakdan, who was lecturing girls rounded-up for wearing "inappropriate" clothes in front of the city's Baiturrahman Grand Mosque.

Some of them bent in shame and others, including one without jilbab, expressed their indifference to an angered Raja, who pointed at the youths and criticized their tight jeans and shirts.

Although they wore scarves and covered their aurat or certain body parts, they were still considered in breach of Qanun (bylaw) No. 11/2002 on Muslim women's dress code, and as reported in the front page photo of The Jakarta Post, Nov. 16, the girls could be caned.

What happened if my children were among them? That was the first reaction as I scrutinized the picture, because my two daughters do not wear head scarves. Second, can the measures taken to enforce the bylaw give a better understanding of Islam and nurture legal obedience among youths?

Muslims are told to teach their children how to obey rules originating in the Koran and Hadith (Prophet Muhammad's sayings and traditions) and to obey the government.

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