Mass sex abuse allegations force closure of boarding school in Indonesia

Hundreds of people descended on a girls' boarding school in the Indonesian village of Tlogosari, Central Java on 2 May, shouting chants and waving banners.

"Women are not sexual objects" read one. Another said, simply, "The Predator".

The mob was there to accost and hurl insults at 58-year-old Kiai Ashari, the caretaker of the Ndholo Kusumo Islamic boarding school, as he was escorted away by police. He is suspected of sexually abusing dozens of female students – most of them orphans from poor families – over the course of several years.

The case has provoked outrage in Indonesia, and highlights a systemic issue of sexual abuse in Islamic boarding schools across the country.

While multiple witnesses who spoke out against Ashari have since withdrawn their testimonies, one victim has now filed an official complaint – and suggested that as many as 50 others fell prey to the caretaker's sexual violence.

"[The number of victims] is 30 to 50 children based on the victim's statement," the victim's attorney, Ali Yusron, told the BBC. "I handled one victim, but the legal process tells of many victims.

"One person reveals everything."

Police said on 4 May that Ashari, who investigators named as a suspect on 28 April, had not yet been detained – but insisted that he would not flee. He proved them wrong later that day, fleeing Pati for the cities of Bogor, Jakarta and Solo before being caught by police on the night of 6 May at a mosque in Wonogiri, Central Java.

Pati police chief Jaka Wahyudi told reporters on 7 May that the victim was allegedly abused 10 times at different locations between February 2020 and January 2024.

The suspect is accused of entering the victim's room under the pretext of asking for a massage, before telling the victim to remove their clothing and committing indecent acts including "touching, squeezing and kissing".

After the incident occurred a tenth time the victim told their father, and a police report was filed.

This is not the first time Ashari has faced allegations of sexual abuse against his students. The caretaker, who also founded the Ndholo Kusumo school, is thought to have a history of abuse dating back to 2022.

"The victims are female students, mostly MTs students," Ali says. "Three years in a row, they change at will."

In 2024, Pati Police's Women and Children's Services Unit (PPA) received reports of alleged sexual crimes targeting minors in their teens.

Some of those charges were later dropped.

Pati police chief Jaka told the BBC that authorities investigated the 2024 case and interviewed witnesses, but ran into "obstacles along the way" - including four victims who withdrew their statements.

"The victim and the victim's parents expressed their intention to resolve the matter amicably," he explained.

"Therefore, several witnesses withdrew their testimony at the time, citing concerns about their children's future."

The case against Ashari resurfaced last month when, after two years, police finally named him as a suspect.

Authorities are still investigating the number of victims, Jaka said. But the allegations also point to a systemic trend of abuse in Indonesia's Islamic boarding schools.

Ashari is said to have instilled misleading doctrines in his female students, several of whom said he claimed to be a saint with powers beyond human comprehension and, in other cases, the descendant of a prophet who should be honoured.

Imam Nahe'i, a member of the PBNU Anti-Sexual Violence Unit (SAKA) who is also a former commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, tells the BBC that cases of sexual violence in Islamic boarding schools usually follow a similar pattern.

Caretakers in these schools often teach things that "smell of shamanism or mysticism", as opposed to "anything rational", he says.

"Then there are also those who claim to be guardians," he adds. "If you don't obey them, you'll go to hell."

More explicitly, Imam Nahe'i says Islamic boarding schools often normalise, tolerate, and even allow actions such as touching, hugging and kissing students – which, he says, could lead to a tolerance of sexual violence.

He cites a case at a school in Sumenep, which "happened quite a long time ago, since 2017, until it was finally uncovered recently".

"This means that all this time there has been some tolerance from those around them."

Imam Nahe'i, who teaches at a large Islamic boarding school, says that when he asked he found his fellow teachers "didn't understand what sexual violence was".

"They said sexual violence is defined as penetration," he explains. "If it hasn't reached that point, it's not considered sexual violence – it's just a kind of sin."

A broader issue relates to a lack of government supervision.

While Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs issued legislation in 2022 concerning the handling of sexual violence in educational contexts, Islamic boarding schools – which are typically founded by individuals rather than government institutions – are harder to regulate and often slip through the cracks.

This makes it difficult to report and protect against sexual violence in Islamic boarding schools. As Imam Nahe'i puts it, the legislation "cannot control" them.

"In order for Islamic boarding schools to have clear regulations and a task force, I think the Ministry of Religion really needs to push for this," he says.

"In addition, supervision from the Ministry of Religion and the community regarding these newly emerging Islamic boarding schools must be stricter."

The Ndholo Kusumo boarding school reportedly had a permit since 2021, and was home to at least 252 students.

In the wake of these latest allegations, the school has been closed down and students have been sent home.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has revoked the school's license permanently, and said that students' educations would continue through online learning options or transfers to other institutions – especially for orphaned students.

The Director of Islamic Boarding Schools at the Ministry of Religion, Basnang Said, explained that the closure of the boarding school was to ensure that authorities could prioritise the investigation while maintaining order and protecting children.

New student admissions will be suspended until all issues are resolved and there is certainty that the childcare system, child protection, and institutional governance meet standards.

If Ndholo Kusumo is found to not meet those standards, it will be permanently deactivated.

The Ministry of Religion has further recommended that educators or caretakers at Islamic boarding schools who are suspected of sexually abusing students should be dismissed and kicked out of their residences on the Islamic boarding school grounds.

Islamic boarding schools across Indonesia are being asked to appoint new teaching staff with the capacity, moral integrity, and readiness to fully care for students 24 hours a day.