Kate Hodal
reports on the dangers of defying taboos in the world's most populous Muslim
country
 |
Noah and Dian (names changed) could face jail for being married before
Noah has completed his gender realignment surgery.
Photograph: Javad Tizmaghz |
It was
anything but a normal wedding. The identity cards were forged, the groom's
parents refused to attend, and only a handful of friends were invited. The
event was so taboo it could have end with the bride and groom in jail.
"That
day I felt like a freedom fighter, like liberty itself," says 28-year-old
Noah of his Indonesian wedding, with the photograph album of last year's
ceremony spread open across his knees. "But the truth is, we have no
choice but to keep it a secret."
"It"
is the fact that Noah, a small-boned man with teenage acne, a gelled-back crew
cut and wispy moustache, is not yet – in the eyes of his government – a man.
One of a
growing number of Indonesia's transgender people, Noah – who was born female,
but is now pre-op female to male – is defying considerable sociocultural taboos
in the world's most populous Muslim country to become who he feels he is:
"A man who just wants to be with the person I love."
"There's
no shortcut for this," he says, quietly, of his transgender life.
"You have to plan everything – how to fit into society, how to act like a
man, how to behave 'normally'. If you don't, you face discrimination – and
physical, sexual and verbal abuse."
There are
no official figures for the number of transgender people currently living in
Indonesia. "She-males" – or waria – are some of the most socially
visible, with the most famous among them, talkshow host Dorce Gamalama,
considered the Indonesian Oprah.
But the
transgender life is not easy in Indonesia. While legally allowed to marry, they
can do so only after successfully completing realignment surgery, a
prohibitively expensive process which costs 200m rupiah (£14,300). They must
also wait for a government-issued identity card declaring their new gender.
In a nation
where the average annual income is 20m rupiah, (£1,430) many transgenders and
their partners are forced instead to lead what are, technically, same-sex
relationships.
"This
is a grey area in Indonesian law," says Yuli Rustinawati of the
Jakarta-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) charity Arus
Pelangi (Rainbow Stream). "The national government recognises sex but not
gender, or – in other words – the result of realignment surgery, but not the
process."
While
neither LGBT persons nor same-sex relations are prohibited by the Indonesian
state of 240 million, 80% of whom are Muslim, local governments vary in how
they handle it.
Many
states, such as south Sumatra, use anti-prostitution laws to restrict the
rights of LGBT people, where "prostitution" is widely defined to
include homosexual sex and lesbianism, as well as pornography and sexual abuse.
In the sharia state of Aceh, gay sex is punishable by jail, while waria, once
nationally deemed cacat, or mentally ill, are now categorised along with the
homeless as a "social welfare problem".
According
to Sardjono Sigit, of Gaya Nusantara, an LGBT rights group based in Surabaya,
east Java, such laws simply prove that "LGBT people in Indonesia are still
regarded as freaks who are part of some 'special community'."
"As an
'entertainer', an LGBT person can be free to express their sexuality as part of
their 'performance'," he says. "But in daily life, they're still
expected to behave as heterosexuals."
LGBT rights
have recently gained exposure thanks to the Indonesian human rights commission
and a new, official network of HIV/Aids programmes. However – and possibly as a
response to the nation's exacting cultural mores – reports of unusual marriages
such as Noah's have surged in the past few months, from small villages in Aceh
to the capital city of Jakarta.
Mainly
involving seemingly heterosexual couples who are later found to contain a
transgender partner, the stories have flummoxed locals and officials alike. The
latest report, of two women who married as a heterosexual couple but were later
exposed by neighbours to be lesbians, created a stir when the local religious
police threatened to behead the women and set them alight as punishment for
their "embarrassing and forbidden" behaviour.
While local
rights groups concede that the Indonesian LGBT movement has gained considerable
ground in the last five years, so too has the fundamental Islamic movement,
says Rustinawati.
"Many
communities now send LGBT people to pasantran (Islamic boarding schools) for
'sexual re-education'," she explains. "LGBT conferences have been
cancelled and the Q! (queer) film festival was attacked by the Islamic
Defenders Front — but the police don't protect us, because they don't want to
get involved with the Islamicists." Last year's attack on the festival —
when masked people threatened to burn down participating cinemas — was
supported by the Indonesian Ulema Council, the country's highest religious
body.
For Noah,
who faced abuse at school, was beaten with brooms and stones by his family, and
twice tried to kill himself, the only way to live as a self-declared devout
Muslim and transgender in Indonesia is to "have a strategy.
"You
have to be careful with everything you do. I've moved house and changed jobs
since starting the testosterone, and I have almost no friends. " In the
bedsit she shares with her husband, Noah's wife Dian, 28, confides that she,
too, fears for her own life. "I must follow every tradition of being
'normal'," she says, "because if my parents knew I was living like
this, they would kill me."
"And
if they didn't," adds Noah, "then the neighbours would."The
couple, who hope to one day adopt children, have contemplated moving to
Thailand — where realignment surgery is cheaper and life as a transgender
couple arguably easier — but their hope for a safer future in Indonesia
surpasses their current fear.
"I
believe in God and I surrender to him — he will protect me on this path,"
explains Noah.
"I
prayed every day that I would one day wake up a man. And I am getting there, step
by step."
Some names
have been changed to protect identity.
About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack) - “You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.”
"The Akashic System" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version) New !
