Indonesian police detain 12 transgender women for 're-education' to become 'real men'

Police in Indonesia have detained 12 transgender women after raiding five beauty salons in Aceh province, cutting their hair and forcing them to wear men’s clothes.

According to state media, they were also made to run around and chant loudly “until their male voices came out”.

The operation was dubbed “Eradication of Community Disease” and was allegedly launched in response to complaints from local residents that their children were being harassed.

Police also reportedly found pornographic material on some of the detainees’ mobile phones.

But following the raids, local police chief Ahmad Untung Surianata told crowds that the transgender women – known locally as waria, a word that combines the Indonesian words for man and woman – were symptoms of a “disease” that is “spreading”.

“We helped them to return to their nature as men and it turned out that they were actually macho,” Mr Surianata said on Monday.

He said he would take action against not only the transwomen but also any visitors to their salons.

Asrizal H Asnawi, chairman of the National Mandate Party Faction in the Aceh House of Representatives, praised Mr Surianata’s work.

“I hope that similar things are done by other police chiefs throughout Aceh,” he said.

The current whereabouts of the women is unclear. Some reports suggest they were released on Sunday or Monday evening, while others say they were still detained on Tuesday.

Speaking after the raids, Mr Surianata said the women would be detained for at least three days, an intention he repeated on Monday when speaking to local journalist Nurdian Hasan.

The women would undergo “re-education” to become “real men” and would be released after a maximum of five days, Mr Surianata told Mr Hasan,

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia to practice sharia law, which outlaws homosexuality. Consensual gay sex is punishable by up to 100 lashes.

Although it is not against sharia to be transgender, human rights groups are concerned that Aceh is becoming an increasingly hostile place for all LGBTI people.

Indonesia’s parliament is also considering an amendment to the country’s criminal code that would criminalise consensual sex between two unmarried persons, in effect making all same-sex conduct illegal.

Human rights organisations reacted angrily to the detentions.

“The latest raids on beauty salons are just the latest example of the authorities arbitrarily targeting transgender people simply for who they are,” said Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director Usman Hamid.

“Cutting the hair of those arrested to ‘make them masculine’ and forcing them to dress like men are forms of public shaming and amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, in contravention of Indonesia’s international obligations,” he said.

“Police are there to protect everyone, not to humiliate them and violate their rights.”

Aceh province drew international headlines last May for publicly caning two young gay men for having sex with each other.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 300 LGBT people were apprehended in police raids across Indonesia last year.

Additional reporting by Reuters