“Hijabs and High Heels” — an insight on Indonesia’s trans* culture
INDONESIA, one of the largest Muslim countries in the world, is the focus of a new Dateline feature exploring its trans* culture and tradition.
The show will reveal the rise of intolerance in recent years for trans* people, or waria, a term that mixes the Indonesian words for man and woman.
The episode follows David O’Shea documenting transgender human rights campaigner Mama Yuli as she embarks on a national movement, lobbying for acceptance of warias in Indonesian society.
A warrior herself, Yuli tells Dateline of the struggle she endured coming out to her family.
“I cried every day. When I got up I had nothing to eat. I was hungry. No one would give me food. I cried. But who helped me? No one did,” she said.
Dateline documents the threat from small but vocal extremist groups who refuse to accept warias as humans, targeting waria events by shutting down their meetings and beauty pageants.
“We’re disturbed by the way they dress, by their presence, their behaviour. They shouldn’t be allowed to feel normal,” Muhammed Fuad told Dateline.
Dateline will air the episode on SBS One Tuesday, March 31 at 9.30pm.
What the promo:
