She became the sixth winner of the annual contest first held in 2013 by the Jakarta Transgender Community (KWJ).

“I’ve always wanted to be a model,” she told The Jakarta Post recently.

Originally from Jambi, Iyet moved to Jakarta in 2011 in a bid to pursue her dream amid pressure from her family that she said was quite conservative about gender norms. Although lauding her family for accepting her for who she was, she recalled times when her family demanded she become ‘a real man’.

It was only when she joined a program called “Yes! I Can” in 2017, which introduced her to fellow transgender women, that she opened her eyes to violence against transgender people in Indonesia.

“I met fellow transgender people whose lives were incomparable to mine. Most of them had been kicked out of their houses and shunned by their families. If those things had happened to me, I am not sure what I would have done to myself,” she said.

Iyet is one 10 recipients of scholarship grants for professional training courses organized by the HIV/Aids Research Center (PPH) of Atma Jaya University in Jakarta.

Started in August 2017, the “Yes! I Can” program aims to empower transgender people, sex workers and street children as part of marginalized society.

As many as 300 transgender people, sex workers and street children who registered for the program were assessed during a four-day course in 2018 to help each participant set his or her life goals and how to achieve them through the right career path.

A follow-up session held six weeks later resulted in 26 participants receiving scholarship and internship opportunities with professional and certified institutions. The selection of the grantees was based on the level of determination to study and the persistence to achieve goals.

Nine transwomen received four months of training at the Puspa Martha International Beauty School and six-month internship opportunities with the brand in 2019. One transwoman opted to take courses at the health science college (STIKES) Tarumanegara in South Jakarta and is currently doing an internship at the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI).

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"LGBT people are a vulnerable group and remain an object of discrimination and hostility amid growing conservatism."

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After completing their internships, three transwomen were employed by a major salon chain, while Iyet and five other transwomen got funds to run a beauty salon named Sang Ratu (The Queen).

The 2.5 x 7-meter salon on the Atma Jaya University campus is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The salon has been well received not only by campus students but also by outsiders. Iyet and her friends said 7 to 22 customers came for hair treatment to the salon each day, more than at other salons of that size in the city.

She expressed gratitude for what she called a rare opportunity amid growing hostility to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the country, particularly in the Greater Jakarta area.

LGBT people are a vulnerable group and remain an object of discrimination and hostility amid growing conservatism, Iyet said.

A 2018 survey by think tank Saiful Mujani Research Center (SMRC) reported that 41.4 percent of Indonesians considered LGBT people a serious threat, while only 9.4 percent said the opposite, and 46.2 percent considered LGBT a common threat.

Negative sentiment against the group grew following the much-publicized case of Reynhard Sinaga, an Indonesian convicted serial rapist in the United Kingdom. Reynhard, who was found guilty of rape and sexual assault against 195 men, used to live in Depok, West Java. The case prompted an anti-LGBT move by Depok Mayor Mohammad Idris to order his administration to conduct raids against the LGBT community in the satellite city.

The “Yes! I Can” program aims to change the perception that transpeople are a threat to society.

“We would like everyone to know that these transwomen are professionals; [...] they're not a threat,” the head of PPH Atma Jaya University, Evi Sukmaningrum, told the Post.

She added that the program’s main purpose was to encourage people of the aforementioned communities to spread the message of empowerment to others.

While the program was considered a breakthrough for higher education institutions, Atma Jaya University’s deputy rector for research and partnership, Elisabeth Rukmini, said the university had established the program as part of its charity mission.

In partnership with the ‘Yes! I Can program’, SWARA, a Jakarta-based young transgender community, appreciated the access granted by the university.

“By this, we could prove that transgender people are able to compete and we have the capacity to be considered professionals,” Titin, the community’s coordinator and a transwoman herself, told the Post.

Jio Wijaksono, 28, and Rere Monica Perssik, 31, the salon employees, said their dream was to enter the entertainment industry, but they had no choice but to take the option of working at the salon.

“I am not interested in having a career at a beauty salon, [the scholarship] was a huge grant that should not be rejected. Who knows what this could lead me to,” Jio said.

“While I am still struggling to get connections [for a job] in the entertainment industry, I will just take any opportunity given to me,” said Rere, who dreams of becoming a make-up artist. (trn)

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