Human rights activists have called for the immediate repeal of new laws passed in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province that make gay sex punishable by 100 lashes of the cane, calling it "an enormous step backwards". Aceh is the only part of the majority-Muslim nation that is allowed to implement Islamic sharia law and already carries out public canings for gambling, drinking alcohol and fraternising with the opposite sex outside of marriage.

The law explicitly outlaws anal sex between men and "the rubbing of body parts between women for stimulation", making homosexuality technically illegal for the first time in Aceh. The bylaw will also be the first in Aceh to be applied to non-Muslims, both Indonesians and foreigners.

Amnesty International, which has called for an end to caning in Aceh, asked that the bylaw be repealed immediately. "The criminalisation of individuals based on their sexual orientation is a huge blow for equality in Indonesia," the group's Asia-Pacific director Richard Bennett said.

The province of Aceh, in Indonesia's west, has been slowly implementing sharia law since gaining a degree of autonomy from Jakarta in 2001 in a deal struck to quell a decades-long separatist movement in the province. Read More via Australian Broadcast Co.