Women Around Us : Unspoken Truths from The life of Waria

 Mbak Yuni Shara, one of the santri at Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah , puffing her cigarette while telling her stories.

The diversity of sexual and gender identities throughout history in Indonesia is not a new thing.  The movements of LGBT community was started in the 1960s-1970s ,with Waria community as the first movement that emerged in Indonesian society in 1960s. Transgender is a term for a person whose gender identity, gender expression or behaviour does not conform to that typically associated with sex to which they were assigned at birth. In Indonesia most people know transgender with a term Waria or transwomen. The term waria is a combination of  WAnita (female) and pRIa (male), which was introduced in 1978 by the Indonesian Minister of Religion, Alamsyah Ratoe Perwiranegara. The term itself was an improvement from old terms such as Banci or Bencong , which had a bad connotation to the society.

              Transgender phenomenon in Indonesia has already been recognized in some Indonesia’s culture, although it’s not as vivid as it may seems. However, the traces of transgender does exist in Indonesia. Tom Boelstroff through his book “Playback Nation Waria”, stated that there are traces of waria in Bugis community in Southeast Sulawesi. Bugis society has already acknowledge the existence of Waria  with terms as calabai and bissu. Calabai or waria in Bugis gender system is a person that were assigned as male at birth but take the gender role of heterosexual female. Bissu as phenomenon of transvestites, where a man dressed or behave like a women, were seen as a respectable person , leader of spiritual and traditional ceremonies. Therefore, the existence of transgender in Indonesia is not a new thing and with 35.3000 Waria in Indonesia, it proves that transgender is a part of Indonesia society.

              With a little knowledge of waria’s life in Indonesia, I decided to pay a little visit to Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah in Kota Gede, Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah was found in Notoyudan, 2008, after Yogyakarta’s massive earthquake. At that time, Shinta Ratri and Mariani , as the founder and leader of  Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah decided to gathered a prayer and collected money to help the victims. The needs of having a spiritual guidance and support after the earthquake for fellow transgender are not enough. Therefore, Shinta Ratri decided to create a Pesantren, which is an Islamic school in Indonesia, where  Waria could learn about religion, spiritual guidance and as a place for Waria to discuss about their problems. The Pesantren become more than just a place to learn about religion, it becomes a place where transgender could embrace their identities without any fear of discrimination and stigmas.

              During my visits to Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah I learn a lot about the life of waria in Indonesia. Their struggle in regaining their rights as citizens, the amount of stigmatization and discrimination that they achieved and how they handle it, really brings another perspective to me. I realize that our society have not understand about things, that  is beyond our normalities and social norm. They often think that being waria is a sin, and put waria in our society as a marginal community. As far as I talked to the waria in Pondok Pesantren, I could see that they’re experiencing double marginalization both from the society and government.

              Ibu Shinta ratri told me that it is quite a problem for fellow waria to regain their economic, politic and social rights, due to the fact that stigmatization and discrimination of waria are deeply rooted in our society. They couldn’t find a decent job or get a proper education because of their appearances, and these often puts them in extreme measures, where they have to work as sex workers or street performer. At this exact moment, it is quite funny to see the absence of government function to protect, fulfil and respect waria rights since they are a part of Indonesia’s citizens. I could see that the government also plays a huge role in shaping the way our society thinks about waria, and how they also violated waria’s rights only because of their gender identities. The government should be the one who provide them equal chances just like any other citizens of Indonesia, and yet somehow there’s a huge gap between waria and government. The absence of government protection to waria rights created a loop hole in our society, where in 2016 hate speech towards LGBTQ community in Yogyakarta risen up. This caused a threat to Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah existence in February 2016, where a conservative Islamic group, Forum Jihad Islam, threatened to closed down Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah. False accusations and hate they bring to Pondok Pesantren shattered the sense of security that waria have for a while.

              The life of waria is full of uncertainties and as minorities their voices are often being ignored and we have to change that. Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah is a living proof that the lack of support that government and society gave forced them to facilitate themselves. They educate the society through public discussion about what is waria, They advocate themselves to the government to reclaim their economic, politic and social rights. It is really important for the  government needs to acknowledge their existence and respect waria as human beings.

              Throughout my visits to Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah, I learned that to be able to love yourself and accept who you are need courage. They embrace their gender identity as waria boldly and fearlessly, despite the stigma and hatred they've received for doing it so. Furthermore, It is extremely important to be curious and get to know things before you start to spread hate towards them. Waria in Indonesia have faced many bad things in their lifes. Up until now there are no anti-discrimination laws regarding sexual orientations or gender identity. The government and society need to stop spreading hate and stigmas about waria in Indonesia, because I believe that  waria is a human too.

Be bold, Stay Riot!            

Love,                       

Smita Tanaya