In Langsa Aceh Timur, on 2 October 1999, a group of unidentified masked men stopped a bus carrying women workers of PT Wira Lanao. The women were made to get off the bus, and the men cut off their hair by force … According to the perpetrators, the women workers were wrong to go out without covering their hair (Serambi Indonesia, 5 October 1999; Noerdin 2000: 8).

Alifah (not her real name), a high school graduate from Garut (West Java), was asked by her mother to visit her grandmother who lived on the border of Tasikmalaya and Ciamis district in West Java. Because of the distance, Alifah, who wore a jilbab to cover her hair, started very early in the morning. However, because the roads and transportation links were not very good, at around 7 in the evening Alifah had only got as far as the city of Tasikmalaya … After waiting for around one hour at the bus terminal, she eventually found a public pick-up car that was going to the village. To her utter bewilderment, as the car was leaving the terminal, a group of men stopped the vehicle and forced Alifah out of the car … Alifah heard some of them saying that she had violated a regional regulation of syariah law by going out at night without being accompanied by her husband or a male relative. They took off her jilbab and shaved off her hair as a punishment (Suara Rahima, No. 2, 1 August 2001: 34).