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Indonesian Police Arrest Punk Rockers: Shave Off Hair & Remove Piercings To "Re-Educate" Them
Thursday, 15 December 2011 Written by Elliott Batte


Having your hair shaved off is definitely the worst nightmare for some metalheads and punks – but that’s exactly what police did at a punk rock concert in Indonesia, after they RAIDED the show to cleanse the ‘disgusting’ youths.

The show was held in Banda Aceh, one of the Asian county’s most conservative and morally-strict provinces, and was attended by around 100 young rockers before the police turned up, detaining as many of the concert-goers as possible.

After catching 64 (59 males and 5 females) of them, they were then taken to a police detention centre, where they were forced to give up their band tees (nooo!) - all because government and police officials see the rebellious teens as a threat to Islamic values.

Then, the razors were whipped out, and number two buzz cuts were given all around. Females were given ‘respectable’ bob cuts, leaving their hair short and blunt. Next came the removal of piercings, jewellery, dog tags, chains, necklaces, earrings and everything else that may be seen as unacceptable by the 1984-esque police.

After narrowly-escaping being punished for thought-crime, the youths were thrown into large pools of water, where they were ‘spiritually cleansed’. After their baths, they were all handed toothbrushes – yes, toothbrushes – to wash away what I can only imagine is anti-authority plaque building up around their gnashers. But, worst of all is, all 64 were DETAINED for TEN DAYS so they could receive military style disciplinary training and attend religious classes where they must recite from the Qur’an.

Some of the punkers have spoken out about the particularly harsh way they were treated, with twenty year-old Fauzan saying: “Why? Why my hair?! We didn’t hurt anyone. This is how we've chosen to express ourselves. Why are they treating us like criminals?”

A police chief, on the other hand, retorted: “We’re not torturing anyone. We’re not violating human rights. We’re just trying to put them back on the right moral path.”

The almost-unbelievable scenes are something we’d more likely see in a punk music video – albeit with the punks winning in the end. But it is apparently a regular occurrence in that province, with tattoo-covered piercing-lovers oft-complaining of being harassed by police.

What do you think of the whole incident? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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