Yahoo – AFP, Olivia Rondonuwu, October 9, 2016
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Participants take part in a study group at Indonesia's only Islamic transgender
boarding school -- Al Fatah (AFP Photo/Goh Chai Hin) |
Yogyakarta
(Indonesia) (AFP) - A handful of Muslim transgender women wash their faces, put
on white robes and begin to pray, an act of quiet defiance after their study
centre in Indonesia was shut by hardliners.
Al Fatah,
which claimed to be the world's only Islamic boarding school for transgender
students, was long regarded as a symbol of the tolerant brand of Islam widely
practised in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.
But several
months ago, amid a sudden backlash against lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender people, a local hardline group called Islamic Jihad Front forced
the school to close.
Despite the
risk of retaliation, a small group of former students continue to quietly
gather at the school building in the city of Yogyakarta every week to pray and
study Islam.
"We
want to prove that Islam accepts transgenders, that Islam is a blessing for all
mankind," Shinta Ratri, the leader of the prayer group, told AFP.
The closing
of the school, which was founded in 2008, is one of the most visible signs of
an alarming wave of intolerance sweeping across Yogyakarta -- the country's
cultural heartland which had long been regarded as an open-minded, accepting
city.
In recent
times Islamic hardliners have halted a festival focusing on women's issues and
have targeted the Christian minority, seeking to close down churches and stop
their community work.
Local
police have sometimes been accused of standing back and letting hardliners
carry out acts of intolerance, or even of working with them to do so.
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Participants
prepare to take part in a prayer session at Indonesia's only Islamic
transgender boarding school (AFP Photo/Goh Chai Hin)
|
'Unity in
diversity'
"Unfortunately
in recent years, intolerant groups have been imposing their rigid beliefs on
people," said Agnes Dwi Rusjiyati, the local coordinator of activist group
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika National Alliance.
Bhinneka
Tunggal Ika, Indonesia's national motto, means "Unity in Diversity",
and is intended to show that the vast archipelago takes strength from the
myriad different ethnic, cultural and religious groups living within its
borders.
But there
has been a growing pushback against this long-cherished belief.
Observers
say the trend in Yogyakarta is an acute example of creeping conservatism across
the country, that has targeted everything from the gay community, to drinking
alcohol and pornography.
The
Indonesian constitution officially recognises six different religions. Most of
its 255 million inhabitants practise a moderate form of Islam, often infused
with influences from local ethnic groups, and no one believes the country is
likely to be transformed into a state ruled by sharia law.
But critics
say the influence of fringe hardline groups, and the authorities' unwillingness
to tackle them for fear of being labelled anti-Islamic, has fuelled a dangerous
increase in intolerance.
The
targeting of the transgender community around Yogyakarta, who were previously
allowed, by and large, to quietly get on with their lives, stands out as an
example of this disturbing trend.
The Al
Fatah school, sitting in a labyrinth of alleyways in the historic Kotagede
district of Yogyakarta, is a converted house with a main room that has been
turned into a place for praying and reciting the Koran.
Three
preachers continue to teach about a dozen out of the 42 former students who
head there every week since its closure in February.
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Shinta
Ratri (C), the headmistress of Indonesia's only Islamic transgender
boarding
school, hosts a study group (AFP Photo/Goh Chai Hin)
|
'Part of
God's creation'
“It's so
difficult for these transgenders to pray in the mosque because of the
stigma," Arif Nuh Safri, a 32-year-old preacher, told AFP.
"So
when I came to this school the first thing I told them is they have the right
to pray, because they are part of God's creation."
Prior to
the closure there had been little sign of resistance to the school in the
surrounding area.
"They
want to learn to recite the Koran, they want to be good people, and that's
better than drinking," said one neighbour, Aris Sutanto.
But
Abdurahman, the leader of Islamic Jihad Front, was unapologetic.
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Abdurrahman,
from local hardline group
Islamic Jihad Front, which is leading
the crackdown
on Indonesia's only Islamic
transgender boarding school (AFP Photo/
Goh Chai
Hin)
|
"We
can't be tolerant towards something that is bad," he said, adding that the
hardliners always coordinated with police before taking actions against
activities they considered immoral.
Police
insisted Yogyakarta was still a tolerant city and said they had only taken
action against events when there were objections from people in local
neighbourhoods.
Cases of
intolerance have escalated in Yogyakarta since 2011, when hardliners began
targeting churches. But there has been a sharp increase in recent times as
Islamic groups have grown bolder.
In an
alarming episode in April, Islamic hardliners and police together allegedly stopped
a women's arts festival from going ahead, with organisers claiming they were
verbally harassed and some attendees briefly detained by authorities.
The trend
has sparked concern among the large community of local artists, who have
expressed their frustration in graffiti that questions whether Yogyakarta is
still an accepting place, such as: "City of tolerance?".
Ahmad
Suaedy, a researcher on Islam appointed by the government as an ombudsman on
religious and cultural issues, said the authorities' failure to stop acts of
intolerance was causing minorities to suffer.
"This
is a political strategy of politicians so they can be seen as taking the middle
ground," he said. "But it is at the expense of minority
groups."
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