Marina grabbed my hand and walked towards the front of the courtroom where she was met by a young lady wearing a pink tudung. We saw some empty seats and sat down.

Sumi whispered.

That must be her lawyer, she looks really young.

What’s the worst that can happen?

She gets charged, but it will be a while before the hearing. Hopefully she gets out on bail.

A side door opened and the magistrate walked in.

Bangun! A court official announced.

We stood up. The magistrate was a middle-aged woman in a black jacket and a white tudung. She nodded sternly and sat down.

Sumi whispered again. There’s a lot of cases here, this might take a while.

I had never been in a courtroom before and although this was just a hearing in the Syariah Court, I wondered how the law worked differently for Muslims. I knew that the penalties were harsher, and that there were different laws for marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody of children and crime. My conversion to Islam meant that I too would be subject to Syariah law.

One by one, the cases were tried. The magistrate was brief in her remarks.

There were cases of petty theft; two young boys caught stealing from the mosque. The sentence was two years in juvenile detention. I looked at the scrawny boys who could not have been more than 12. One was scratching his head non-stop. I wondered if he had scabies. These were poor kids from the kampung who probably stole money to buy food. When they were led away a woman in the front burst into tears, and begged the judge for leniency.

Tolonglah, tolong. Itu anak saya.

She was led away sobbing.

Then a teenage girl who was visibly pregnant and a boy of about 18 stepped forward.

Oh my god. This is the worst, Sumi whispered. Unmarried couple. They’ll be sent away and the baby will be born in prison.

Poor kids. Those poor, poor kids. There would be no possibility of bail for this kind of crime. Sure enough, the magistrate glared at them both and spoke harshly.

You will both be sentenced to two years each in jail. Your baby will be born in jail. This is what you have done to yourselves and you only have yourselves to blame.

Bloody hell, I whispered.

That’s Syariah for you. No mercy.

What about the kid?

The kid will be fine. Two years in jail, then they come out and get married. Sorted.

The two teenagers were led off separately, she to serve her time in a female prison and he, in a male one. Who knew of the kinds of horrors they would encounter in those two years? Would their love survive? There were no tears for this young couple, no family who pleaded mercy for them. They had probably been disowned by their families, shunned by their villages, cast out like lepers.

Sumi and I looked at each other, wordless.

Then Marina was called.