Shinta Ratri, the matron of an Indonesian Islamic boarding school, corrects the pronunciation of a group of fellow Muslims as they chant the phrase “only one God” in Arabic and prepare to pray together.

Nothing unusual in that, except that these worshippers, gathered in a cramped residential neighbourhood of the city of Yogyakarta, are all transgender women in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country where hostility against them has surged, forcing many underground.

Rights activists say hardline Islamist groups are fast eroding the country’s long-standing reputation for tolerance of minorities like the “waria” – a portmanteau of the Indonesian words for “woman” and “man” – as the trans community is locally known.

Ratri, 56, and her students and friends witnessed this intimidation first hand in 2016, when vigilante Islamists mobbed the Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah school and forced it to shut down.

Yuni Shara, 51, described how a group of “aggressive” men in white robes and skull caps descended on the school after Friday prayers.

“I felt angry that my freedom, especially my freedom of religion, was being violated,” said Shara, who lives at the school. “… Even the state can’t fully guarantee our safety from these groups,” she added as she took off her wig and make-up before joining the others in prayer.

POCKETS OF OPPOSITION

The school, set up in 2008, was empty for months after the raid but people have gradually begun to return to what is now widely considered a safe space for the waria community.

But while the school is accepted by its immediate neighbours, opposition remains.

“We believe it is our duty as Muslims to prevent this kind of LGBT behaviour and forbid it,” said Umar Said, a senior cleric with the hardline Islamic People’s Forum which forcibly shut down the school two years ago.

While FUI does not “go looking for” waria, the group remains committed to preventing them from promoting their rights. Being transgender is a disease that can be cured through prayer, he said.

Historically, waria and other gender-fluid communities have been an accepted part of Indonesian society. The Bugis ethnic group on Sulawesi island for instance traditionally recognises five genders, including one that is said to “transcend”, or combine, the female and male.

Homosexuality is not regulated by law in Indonesia, except in the ultra-conservative province of Aceh where same-sex relations are banned. But parliament is considering revamping the national criminal code to impose restrictions on consensual sex outside marriage – a move that activists say could be used to target the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community.

“AT PEACE WITH GOD”

Even without legal barriers, many in the LGBT community face ostracism from their families and communities, discrimination in looking for work and, in some cases, violence and humiliation.

Many waria, banished from their homes, end up as sex workers, including some who have slowly started to gather again at Ratri’s boarding school to pray.

For Ustad Arif Nuh Safri, a preacher at the Yogyakarta boarding school, embracing the waria is part of his duty.

During a Koran study session, Safri encourages his congregation to ask candid questions about their sexuality and how it affects their relationship with God.

“As long as we can connect with each other on a human level, we can accept each other the way we are,” Safri said, adding he believes most Indonesians are as “open-minded” as him.

Ratri, dressed in a purple head scarf and bright red eye-shadow and lipstick, says it is this openness that allows the otherwise shunned waria to “make peace with God”.

“As waria, we are already under huge psychological stress,” she said. “Here we can believe we are not sinners for being trans.”

]]> 8015 https://www.faith-matters.org/malaysia-orders-removal-of-lgbt-activist-pictures-from-exhibition/ Thu, 09 Aug 2018 09:50:29 +0000 https://www.faith-matters.org/?p=7667

A Malaysian minister on Wednesday said he had ordered the removal of portraits of two lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists from a public photography exhibition, as they promoted LGBT activities.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is routinely persecuted in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where sodomy is a crime and is seen as a threat to conservative values.

Domestic media quoted Mujahid Yusof Rawa, the minister of Islamic affairs, as saying he ordered the removal from an exhibition in the northern state of Penang because promotion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activities was not in line with government policy.

“I have consistently repeated in parliament that we do not support the promotion of LGBT culture in Malaysia,” he told reporters in the lobby of parliament, the Star newspaper said.

Reuters could not reach the minister by telephone after office hours to seek a comment.

Nisha Ayub, one of the activists whose portrait was removed, expressed concern, asking for the government to explain its stance “towards minorities like us”.

“They talk about rights as a citizen of Malaysia but yet they are denying people like me to even express our love to our own country,” Nisha, a transgender activist, said in a post on social media site Facebook.

On social media, the sponsor of the exhibition also expressed shock at the minister’s move.

“False religiosity and political insecurity is not what the New Malaysia is about and can accept,” said Vinod Sekhar, adding that Malaysia’s diversity, acceptance of differences and human values made it a wonderful country.

Activists say intolerance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has grown in Malaysia in recent years.

In February, a newspaper article detailing how to identify lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals sparked outrage on social media.

Last year, the health ministry drew criticism from activists and campaigners over a contest on ways to “prevent” homosexuality and transgenderism. In 2015, Malaysia’s highest court upheld a ban on cross-dressing.

Ruling party lawmakers were among those who criticised Wednesday’s decision.

“This incident is indicative of a larger issue, where we continue to deny the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community their rights, opting instead to marginalize and discriminate them,” said Charles Santiago, a member of the ruling coalition.

On Monday, Mujahid provoked anger from women’s rights groups when he said the government was working on a dress code for Muslim women in the private sector to keep them from facing discrimination.

The non-profit Women’s Aid Organization said it rejected efforts to police women’s clothing and freedom of expression.

“Restricting what women wear is, in and of itself, discriminatory, and this policy would end up discriminating against women who do not conform to the code,” it said in a statement.

Muslims make up 60 percent of Malaysia’s population of 32 million, with substantial Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities.

Turkish police deployed in central Istanbul on Sunday to enforce a ban on the city’s annual gay and transgender pride march, blocking off a main street and dispersing groups of demonstrators who gathered nearby.

Police with riot shields and helmets sealed off entrances to Istiklal Street, where organisers had planned to hold the march before authorities announced the ban on Saturday, citing security concerns after threats from an ultra-nationalist group.

Small groups of people gathered in sidestreets waving rainbow flags, symbols of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride. Police fired rubber bullets to disperse one group, witnesses said, and detained several people.

Footage posted on the internet also appeared to show them firing tear gas at one location.

Istanbul’s pride march attracted tens of thousands of people in the past, making it one of the biggest in the Muslim world. But in 2015 it was broken up by police and it was banned last year and again this year after threats from the ultra-nationalist Alperen Hearths group.

The Istanbul governor’s office said it decided to prevent the demonstration out of concern for the security of marchers, tourists and residents.

“The true reason for the reactions towards a march that took place in peace for 12 years is hate,” organisers said.

“Our security cannot be provided by imprisoning us behind walls, asking us to hide,” they added. “Our security will be provided by recognising us in the constitution, by securing justice, by equality and freedom.”

Istanbul has traditionally been seen as a relative safe haven by members of the gay community from elsewhere in the Middle East, including refugees from Syria and Iraq.

But although homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey, unlike many other Muslim countries, homophobia remains widespread. Critics say President Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party have shown little interest in expanding rights for minorities, gays and women, and are intolerant of dissent.

The Union for Reform Judaism in North America has adopted a resolution for transgender rights. This move continues a long tradition of supporting minority rights. In 1977, both the Union and the Central Conference of American Rabbis passed resolutions affirming “the rights of homosexuals”.

As Trans Media Watch note: “[Trans] is an umbrella term, describing people who experience the need to present themselves as and/or who identify as other than the gender they were assigned at birth“.

The resolution also supports the rights of individuals who define their gender outside of societal expectations and norms.

According to the Office for Justice Progams (OJP), one in two transgender individuals are sexually abused or assaulted in their lifetimes. A high number of trans individuals are survivors of sexual abuse. Many live with these traumas and the fear of repeat victimisation. People of colour in LGBTQ communities also face disproportionate levels of violence.

In 2014, The New York City Anti-Violence Project (NCAVP) recorded 12 transgender murders. All victims were people of colour. These communities experience higher rates of homelessness, poverty, and job discrimination. This increases their risk of violence.

The NCAVP also found that “LGBTQ and HIV-affected people of color, LGBTQ youth and young adults, transgender people, transgender women, transgender people of color, and low income survivors experience more severe and deadly forms of violence while simultaneously having less access to anti-violence services and support”.

Nuances exist between communities. For example, gay men experienced more physical violence as women faced more sexual violence.

A recent NCAVP report found that undocumented transgender survivors were 3.83 times more likely to face discrimination from partners.

In 2015, the murders of 15 trans individuals became a historic and unwelcome high in the United States.

Catherine Bell, from the grassroots LGBT Jewish group Keshet, told the Tablet Magazine that: “the trans resolution is a really important step forward, and it will help to set a standard that I hope other communities will see as an open and welcome step to come and join.”

Keshet works with the Reform Movement to educate Jewish communities on these issues.

The resolution also affirms the individual right to be referred to by their name, gender, and pronoun of preference in Reform congregations, schools and other affiliated organisations.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, have adopted inclusive transgender policies, but none as far reaching as the Union of Reform Judaism. And the resolution calls on governments in the U.S. and Canada to review its laws to ensure full equality.

Reform Judaism boasts 1.5 million adherents in almost 900 congregations across the United States and Canada. It remains the most liberal wing. Orthodox Judaism is the most conservative wing, and the Masorti sit somewhere in the between.

Reform Judaism’s push for equality comes from the biblical tradition of b’tselem Elohim—in the Divine image. The resolution quoted Genesis 1:27, “And God created humans in God’s image, in the image of God, God created them.”

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