Religious differences reared their ugly head during Friday’s funeral for soap opera actress Yana Zein, who died on Thursday at the age of 44.

Yana passed away at Mayapada Hospital in South Jakarta after two years battling breast cancer, leaving two teenage daughters in poverty.

During her sickness, Yana, a single mom, went through a tough and arduous period as she faced economic difficulties while trying to sustain her family and paying for her medical treatment.

After Yana succumbed to her illness, her friends and relatives could take solace from the fact that she could at last rest in peace.

However, Yana’s funeral was marred by a quarrel between Yana’s parents, who come from different religious backgrounds, over her funeral rites.

Her Russian mother, Swetlana Zein, wanted a Christian funeral for Yana, whom she claimed was a Christian.

Hours after her death, Swetlana, managed to put her daughter’s body in a white coffin at the funeral home of Fatmawati Hospital, South Jakarta, before she was due to be buried in Kampung Kandang public cemetery, Jagakarsa, South Jakarta.

Yana was laid out in a white kebaya (traditional Indonesian blouse) with make-up and a brown hairpiece that covered her baldness, a result of chemotherapy.

But just before the coffin was closed, Yana’s father, Nurzaman, who is divorced from Swetlana, came to the funeral home and stopped the rites, arguing that Yana was a Muslim and thus Muslim rites should be performed for her.

“I recited the adzan [call to prayer] in her ear when she was born. I told her to fast and recite the Quran. It’s impossible that she became a Christian before she passed away. I come here from Sumatra to bring my daughter back as a Muslim,” he said.

Swetlana said that Nurzaman’s statement was untrue as she possessed evidence that Yana was a Christian.

“Her ID shows that she was a Christian. When she was sick, she said that if anything happened to her, she hoped to be buried in a Christian way,” Swetlana said.

The quarrel turned ugly as Swetlana accused Nurzaman of neglecting Yana. Swetlana eventually caved in and let Nurzaman perform Muslim rites for Yana.

Yana’s dress was subsequently removed and she was covered in a kafan (shroud) as required in Islamic burial rites.

Yana was then taken to Baitul Rahman Mosque in Cinere, Depok, West Java, before being buried at Gandul public cemetery in Cinere.

The funeral procession at the public cemetery started at 4:30 p.m. Sounds of crying and sobbing filled the air as several men laid Yana into her final resting place. During the proceedings, Yana’s two daughters and her father stood around the grave.

According to Islamic burial rites, the closest relatives of the deceased should stand by the grave side to oversee the burial.

Nurzaman, did not jump into the grave. “I was not strong enough to do that because of my old age. My leg hurts,” he said.

Swetlana, meanwhile, sat several meters from Yana’s grave as she watched the funeral process, saying that she was unfit to walk or to stand and watch her daughter being buried.

“I came here to take my daughter to her final resting place,” Swetlana said. “She would be crying up there if her mother wasn’t here now.”

After the funeral, Nurzaman said that there was no way he could let Yana be buried in a non-Islamic way.

“According to the Quran, Muslims should be completely Muslim. They can’t be born into Islam and die in another religion,” he said.

Meanwhile, Swetlana said she was fine with her daughter being buried according to Islamic rites as she honored Islam and her Muslim friends. She added that she never forced her children to believe in a specific religion.

“They should be the ones who decide whether to believe in Islam or Christianity; even a mother doesn’t have the right to force them,” Swetlana said.

Social analyst Devie Rahmawati from the University of Indonesia (UI) said conflicts often occur in families with diverse religious backgrounds, especially at a time of death.

“People who are in a family with a diverse religious background should learn from this case and leave a testament [on how they want to be buried] so that this kind of thing does not happen again,” she said.