Id Cards To Protect Muslim Couples

The government will issue identity cards to Muslim couples to protect them from arrest under a religious law prohibiting an unmarried man and woman from being alone together in a room.

The decision to issue the credit card-size identity cards followed complaints that overzealous Islamic officials were arresting married couples staying together in hotel rooms.

The cards, to be issued early next year, will be less cumbersome than marriage certificates, said Abdul Hamid Othman, a minister in the prime minister’s office.

Islamic law prohibits sex outside marriage, and unmarried couples found alone together in a room are deemed to have committed a crime known as khalwat, or “close proximity.” Offenders are publicly tried in Islamic courts and can be fined $200 to $500.

Misuse of the law came to light when two married couples were arrested last month by officials in the state of Kedah.

Slightly more than half of Malaysia’s 19 million people are Muslims.