Indonesian police arrested twelve transgender women, shaved their heads and forced them to wear men's clothing in a forced attempt to "turn them into men." The entire degrading scene took place in a public square.
The local police classified the act as an attempt to sanitize trans people in the Asian country. Titled “operasi penyakit masyarakat”, or something like “community disease operation”, in free translation.
According to information from the local website “Coconuts”, police raided five beauty salons in Aceh, arresting employees and customers who were there.
Aceh is the only province in the Muslim-majority country where Sharia law was institutionalized by government order in 2005.
Aceh police chief Ahmad Untung Surianata reported that twelve trans women were arrested for being part of a “sick society”. Furthermore, Ahmed said that the victims will remain imprisoned, where they will be “trained” until they “become real men”.
The police chief confirmed that the prisoners had their heads shaved, were forced to wear clothing considered masculine and were forced to do a series of exercises against their will.
Untung further said that “officials forced the inmates to sing loudly until their voices became masculine.”
According to the police chief, the operation aims to stop the growing number of LGBTs in Aceh, which, according to him, could be dangerous for the next generation of Indonesians.
“I have mothers who come to me crying, worried about their children,” Untung said. “This is not correct, and we hope that this social disease (sic) can be resolved”, he added.
In a statement sent to Reuters, a spokesperson for Amnesty International said the police attack shows how Aceh has become “an increasingly hostile place” for the LGBT community.
“The recent attack on beauty salons is just the latest example of how arbitrary the authorities have become, arresting trans people just because they are the way they are,” said Usman Hamid of Amnesty International Indonesia.
“Cutting people's hair 'to become a man' and forcing them to dress in a masculine way is a way of causing embarrassment in public that amounts to cruel and degrading treatment that goes against Indonesia's international obligations,” said Hamid .
The Indonesian Human Rights Commission condemned the attack as “illegal” and “inhumane”.
“Every citizen deserves protection and equal treatment,” Beka Ulung Hapsara told the BBC.
“After seeing the photos of the attack and analyzing the information we received, it is clear that the attack violated the police code of conduct,” he said.
“The police’s job should be to protect people, especially the most vulnerable,” he said.
SHARIA LAW
Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. Despite not being illegal, homosexuality is considered immoral as it contradicts the religious precepts of that country.
Laws in the Asian country are based on the Quran, the main source of Islamic jurisprudence. In the province of Aceh, where the episode took place, the government has authorized, since 2005, that those caught in acts similar to homosexuality be punished publicly.
In recent years, numerous cases of violence against the LGBT community in Indonesia have been reported, mainly in Aceh province.
