Transgendered women rounded up and detained by Indonesian police, forced to be men

by Tim Gibson

Twelve transgendered women were arrested by Indonesian police in the highly conservative province of Aceh. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia to be ruled by Sharia Law and has been the subject of much international criticism from human rights advocates.

Earlier this week, the group of transgendered women were rounded up from local salons and taken to a public area where they were paraded around, forced to wear men’s clothes, and had their heads shaved. The whole incident was filmed and uploaded to YouTube.

The arrests were part of an “Operation of Community Disease” and were conducted not just by police but by civilian vigilantes as well. Police Chief Ahmad Untung Surianata said that the women will be detained “until they really become men”. Untang said the raids were born of a necessity to protect future generations of Aceh from LGBT+ people, “the expression of men dressed like women needs serious attention.”

This comes months after two Aceh men in their early 20s were arrested and sentenced to 82 lashes each for being gay and a new poll showed the increasingly anti-LGBT attitudes of the country.

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