Indonesia’s government passed a landmark revision of the country’s penal code that means sex before marriage will now be seen as a criminal offence, with those convicted facing up to a year in prison.
The new laws, which are set to take effect in three years, have also made adultery illegal, as well as prohibiting the promotion of contraception and defamation of the President and the state.
It is now also illegal for unmarried couples to live with each other - an act punishable by up to six months in prison.
The revised laws will apply to anyone in the country, including citizens, foreigners living in Indonesia and tourists.
Civil rights activists have labelled these law changes as “disastrous” for human rights and argue that some of the revisions are overly broad or vague, warning they could penalise normal activities and threaten freedom of expression and privacy rights.
While sex outside of marriage was illegal before this revision to the criminal code, the law was not enforced.
Now, adultery charges can be prosecuted after complaints are made by either the spouse, parents or children of the accused.
The long-awaited code also extends a blasphemy laws and maintains a five-year prison term for deviations from the central tenets of Indonesia's six recognised religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.
As well as this, the 600 pages of reformation upholds criminalisation of abortion but now allows women with life-threatening medical conditions and victims of rape to end their pregnancy, provided the foetus is still under 12 weeks old.
However, after fierce deliberation, a ban on gay sex proposed by Islamic groups was rejected.
Changes have also been made to laws regarding capital punishment and under the new code, convicts behaving well within a period of 10 years could have their sentence reduced to lifetime imprisonment and in some cases, just 20 years behind bars.
This comes after a push by the the National Commission on Human Rights for capital punishment to be outlawed in the country as has been seen in dozens of other countries over the past decade.
The hordes of changes in legislation come as Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim majority in the world, sees a rise in religious conservatism.
Human Rights Watch argue that laws penalising criticism of public leaders are contrary to international law, and the fact that some forms of expression are considered insulting is not sufficient to justify restrictions or penalties.
There is also concern for Indonesian women as research from Gulf states that enforce similar strict laws governing sex and relationships show women are disproportionately punished and targeted by such laws.
Andreas Harsono, a senior Indonesia researcher at the group, said: "The danger of oppressive laws is not that they'll be broadly applied, it's that they provide avenues for selective enforcement."
He added that many hotels, including in tourist hot-spots such as Bali and metropolitan Jakarta, will risk losing visitors as visitors could also face prosecution if caught evading the laws.
"These laws let police extort bribes, let officials jail political foes, for instance, with the blasphemy law," Mr Harsono said.
