We are human (and beautiful): Several Acehnese transvestites pose after a beauty competition in Banda Aceh last month. They want people to acknowledge their existence in the country’s only province that applies Islamic sharia law.
“Treat us the same as other citizens and look at us as humans,” said Timy, unhappy and annoyed.
Dark-skinned Timy is slim with short, dyed-blonde hair. Timy looks normal at first glance, but the way Timy talks and the hip-swaying steps, like a model on a catwalk, make a difference.
Timy is indeed different. Timy is a man born with female characteristics, locally called a waria or transvestite. “Ever since childhood, I’ve preferred skirts to trousers,” she said.
According to her siblings, little Timy wouldn’t stop crying until her mother gave her a frock. And Timy liked playing with toy kitchenware instead of joining village boys playing football.
Serving people: Timy styles a customer’s hair in her beauty salon. The sharia police often raids beauty salons in Banda Aceh because they believe transvestites are men and therefore should not touch women who are not their wives.
“I have two older brothers and two sisters. My older sisters always came to help me while my brothers didn’t seem to care much,” said the youngest of five children from Lhokseumawe.
The small town is about 350 kilometers from Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh. It is known as a petrodollar town with several major companies like Exxon Mobile and PT Arun undertaking oil and gas exploration there. However, living in a resource-rich area has not made Timy’s family wealthy or prosperous. Her father barely earns enough to survive.
It’s not Timy’s choice to be a transsexual. However, she has now been identified as such, in Indonesia’s only province applying Islamic sharia law.
“I’d rather choose to be a normal man if only I could, because it’s very difficult to be a transvestite in a region dubbed the veranda of Mecca’,” Timy pointed out.
The existence of waria in society, particularly amid the Aceh community, she said, has remained a very sensitive issue, with many people still unwilling to accept this group. Social friction and discrimination have arisen as a consequence.
The various types of discrimination against transvestites range from the spheres of occupation and education, to the infliction of improper treatment in public places. “We’re seen as the scum of society, to be discarded. We’re treated as sinful people bringing embarrassing disgrace,” she said.
Discrimination in education has an extensive impact on transvestites everywhere. Most of them have dropped out of school, mainly because they have lost all self-confidence as a result of their physical and mental anomaly.
“Many are reluctant to go to school or college as they can no longer bear being made fun of, scoffed at or called banci or bencong [she-males],” Timy added.
Waria has a more positive connotation than the derogatory banci, which makes transvestites feel awkward when they are ridiculed with such a term. Transvestites were initially given the name waria to describe their choice of female attire, makeup, hairstyle and work.
The public’s marginalization of transsexuals has rendered them incapable of joining various professions other than the beauty industry. Beauty parlors have become the only place for them to try their luck at making a living.
“Transvestites have very rarely entered the medical, legal or other professions,” said Agus Syintia – also known as Anyak, who works at Roddy Salon in Banda Aceh.
After high school and college studies, Anyak finally left the education system as she couldn’t bear the inhumane way most people treated her.
“Their derogatory comments and harassment used to make me so angry, but now I don’t let those get to me anymore, just as long as I don’t upset anybody,” she remarked.
Yes we can: Timy shows a certificate acknowledging her beautician skills.
Timy and Anyak joined Putro Sejati Aceh (PSA), an organization for transvestites in Aceh. Today, PSA has around 300 members in the province. Through this group, Timy and Anyak have become aware of human rights and HIV-AIDS prevention issues.
“Human rights and HIV-AIDS issues are important and should be communicated to all members of Putro Sejati in Aceh, so they are equipped to handle people who discriminate against transvestites,” Timy explained.
It is important for waria to know their rights especially when Aceh’s sharia police violate them. Transvestites working in salons tend to be the main target of sharia police upholding Islamic law in the region.
Why does the sharia police target them? Because the police regard transvestites as men, who are not allowed to work in beauty parlors meant for women. “We’re forbidden to work there, yet it’s our job.
How can we make a living otherwise? Is the government prepared to give us alternative jobs?” Anyak asked.
Apart from dealing with the sharia police’s frequent raids, Aceh’s transvestites also have to deal with community members who dislike their presence. Timy and Anyak related an incident in 2007, where hundreds of people in Beurawe village, Banda Aceh, forced them to leave. About 20 transvestites were renting rooms in a local settlement there.
“They didn’t want us to stay in their village for fear we might bring disaster on their neighborhoods,” recalled Anyak. The police ended up evacuating the tenants to protect them from the angry mob.
“We were given one day’s guarantee of safety, on the condition that all of us in Beurawe village would leave for some other place,” Anyak said. Feeling distressed, the transvestites, who were no strangers to such mental and physical ordeals, left the village.
“I don’t care what people say. Whether they’re ready to accept us as we are is up to them. The point is we’ve never violated any law in this country,” Timy said.
— Photos by JP/Hotli Simanjuntak
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