All sorts of nonsense goes on in America about bikes and motorbikes and the proper way to use them and ride them. But at least we have decided that it is OK for people of both genders to be seen astride a two-wheeled contraption. In one city in Indonesia, they’re still fighting over that. The mayor of Lhokseumawe argues that Islamic law means women shouldn’t straddle bikes and others say that’s totally ridiculous.

Here’s the mayor’s argument:

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“When you see a woman straddle, she looks like a man. But if she sits side-saddle, she looks like a woman,” Suaidi said.

And here’s the counter-argument:

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“How to ride a motorbike is not regulated in Sharia. There is no mention of it in the Koran or Hadiths,” he said on his Twitter account, referring to the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.

We’re not even going to ask what the situation might be with recumbent bikes or unicycles.