Indonesian police arrested two women on charges of blasphemy after a video purportedly showing one of them stepping on a Quran went viral online.

Police in the province of Banten confirmed the arrests on 12 April, saying the incident occurred earlier in the week in Lebak district, around 140km from the capital Jakarta.

The identities and ages of the women were not disclosed but authorities said they could face up to five years in prison if convicted under Indonesian blasphemy law.

The law forbids statements offending one of the Southeast Asian country’s six officially recognised religions or attempting to dissuade anyone from following their faith.

According to police, the incident occurred on 8 April in a salon after the owner accused a guest of theft. When the accused woman denied the allegation, the situation escalated.

Authorities said the salon owner demanded the guest swear her innocence while stepping on the Quran, and recorded the act on video. That footage quickly spread across social media platforms, triggering widespread outrage in the majority Muslim country.

“The person who stepped on the Quran and the person who asked her to swear an oath have both admitted what they did. Police have summoned them, and they have now been named as suspects,” Banten police spokesperson, Maruli Ahiles Hutapea, told the news agency AFP.

Indonesia, home to nearly 240 million Muslims, has long grappled with tensions between religious sensitivity and freedom of expression. Rights groups have repeatedly criticised the blasphemy law.

One of the most prominent cases that led to scrutiny of the law was that of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, widely known as Ahok, the former governor of Jakarta, who was jailed for almost two years in 2017 after being convicted of blasphemy.

At the time, Human Rights Watch said the guilty verdict against Purnama was “a huge setback” for Indonesia’s record of tolerance and for minorities.

In 2022, a former minister, Roy Suryo, was arrested after sharing a doctored image of a Borobudur Temple stupa resembling Joko Widodo, sparking complaints from Buddhist groups.

“Indonesia’s toxic blasphemy law has claimed another victim, this time a former government minister over a social media post deemed insulting to Buddhists,” Human Rights Watch said at the time.

More recently, in 2024, a comedian was sentenced to seven months in prison for making a joke involving the name Muhammad.