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High Heels and Hijabs
(David thinks this title would be fine to use)
| REVISED Catherine Scott/ David O’shea 25/3/15
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| Mama Yuli make up
Indonesian night scenes - people/waria buskers
Religious extremist rally/Music change
Over shoulder Mama Yuli at confernce/CU -beautiful faces in audience |
Vira “This is me, You can’t stop being like this.
Indonesia is a melting pot of cultures and has the largest Muslim population of any country on earth. In recent years there’s been a rise in intolerance - with minorities including the transgender community, under attack by Muslim fundamentalists.
SUBREEL 1 #1 FPI demo David’s archive 1038 No homosexuality! / we’ll make them wear skirts or strip them naked! They’re worse than animals.
But now - some feel the time is right to speak out against intolerance and demand the same rights all Indonesians enjoy.
Mama Yuli “Let’s open the discourse in Indonesia for waria to explore their potential.”
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Waria Images
Waria put on Islamic dress and praying
Jakarta activist crew on bus, waria swinging on bus pole/ walking into commission
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Here transgender women are traditionally called Waria which you get from joining the Indonesian words for woman and man
Pritz “I was born in the wrong body please god let me die in the right body.
Mama Shinta “ The one who makes us waria is Allah”
There has been massive change in Indonesia since the end of dictatorship - now the challenge is whether the country can fully accept minorities, like the waria, and embark on a new era of change.
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INSERT TITLE CARD w /Music Change
TITLE “High Heels and Hijabs”
MAP of Indonesia
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Miss Kabaya pageant
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I’m in the inner sanctum – with contestants in the Miss Kebaya Pageant.
It’s a celebration of the traditional Javanese dress, the Kabaya, on the waria body
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Miss Kabaya Pageant con’t |
Mama Yuli is their undisputed Queen.
She’s the head of the Indonesian Waria Communication Forum, and a tireless campaigner for waria rights
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Home |
But it’s been a long way to the top for 53 year old Mama Yuli.
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Cleaning at home | SUBREEL 1 #8 1A/133301 - 3309 Mama Yuli As a woman – you have to manage the household, cook, wash up...
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home
Auntie IV
(POTTSY – this should be on a Subreel and subtitled already. Also please send to Robin for checking as with all new subtitles)
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But she’s no ordinary housewife
She is constantly lobbying one politician or another, and the first waria in Indonesia to graduate from an Islamic university.
Auntie CARD 11 45:09:07
Yuli’s Auntie, Oma Ludy, says she is not only the first person to come out as a waria at university, but the first person in their entire family to ever attend one.
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Hair salon shots/chatting with friends and clients
| SUBREEL 1 #10 1B/4822 Mama Yuli In the past, waria didn’t go to school. People thought they were only fit to be street prostitutes. Now we have degrees. We appear in public as intelligent people. People see us differently.
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But generally - waria still face significant obstacles to their acceptance by society
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SUBREEL 1 #15 134041 - 4055 Mama Yuli iv There is stigma and discrimination but this is a process and a fact of life.
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Driving shots West Papua
PHOTOS |
Mama Yuli grew up in a catholic village over 3000 kilometres away in West Papua – Born as Julianus Rettoblaut to parents who were school teachers.
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Show David photo | SUBREEL 1 #31 13/1754 Mama Yuli This is me at primary school age with my mum in the village my first communion. I was in church
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Photo
Auntie IV | SUBREEL 1 #33 13/2100 Yuli This is me when I was in senior high school
40:11:00ish
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Julianus was still a man when he went to Jakarta. When he attended university to study law he became a she and named herself Yuli.
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Yuli talking to David
| SUBREEL 1 #34 1837 – 1849 Yuli This is when I first became a waria. I was pretty scary-looking.
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Photo
Auntie IV
Photo
Auntie IV |
Once her family found out – they cut all contact
“we didn’t agree with what she had done”
Not even you?
Including me because at that time I didn’t understand”
When Yuli’s mother died her eldest son, a policeman, tracked Yuli down
“He put the gun to his head , and said “You must stop being a waria” and become a normal man, have a normal family, so that you have offpsring.”
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Mama Yuli IV | SUBREEL 1 #36 Yuli 1c/ 141404 or 5925 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.
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photos |
She took a low paid job cleaning the rooms at a brothel to pay her school fees – and then became a sex worker.
For the next 17 years she survived poverty and abuse on the streets
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| SUBREEL 3 #1 13/1924 Yuli This is me when I was a sex worker
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But even amongst her fellow waria sex workers - she struggled to get accepted
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| SUBREEL 1 #40 140018 Mama Yuli iv They didn’t like me being there. There were only pretty ones there.
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Sex worker street scenes - night |
Over and again she was teased and harassed for being too black and too ugly.
One night – she’d had enough - and attacked one of her tormentors.
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TAMAN LAWANG
| SUBREEL 1 #42 140022 0059 Mama Yuli I lost my patience because of all the insults. I got a knife and stabbed the waria/ After that, people were scared of me. Then they said to me “You can be the gangster here.” People who didn’t want to pay a waria the correct money had to deal with me and I’d get into a big fight with them. The protection money they paid was enough to live on.
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2B/0014 MAMA YULI GETS OUT CAR
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She has brought me to Taman Lawang –famous for its waria sex workers in central Jakarta .... all these years later... instead of striking fear– Mama Yuli commands respect
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Mama Yuli walks along the strip at night |
SUBREEL 1 continues from #52 And here we see the star of Taman Lawang. She has quite a reputation and she’s famous because she’s gorgeous. She and her friend are from Kalimantan/ And here’s a young waria who’s freshly hatched. She’s learning to be a model and she’s a good actress. |
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Even though sex work is widely practiced and accepted in Indonesia it is still illegal. This makes waria sex workers vulnerable to police raids and puts them at risk to abusive “would be” clients.
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SUBREEL 1 #81 I’m too traumatized to go far. I once got bashed in a car.
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Mama Yuli has been a great advocate for the Waria here
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SUBREEL 1 #69 2B/2910 waria Mama Yuli is the best! Why? She defends waria. Since Mama Yuli became the boss here its better for us. If a waria has any sort of problem she always steps in. She really cares. Yeah |
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She also worries about their health. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Indonesia is one of the fastest growing in Asia. But the waria in Taman Lawang have been very active in getting out the safe sex message.
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Sex worker - night |
2B/ 1209 Octa No condom no fucking no honey
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I ask Mama yuli how she survived AIDS after 17 years on the streets - when most of her friends didn’t
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| SUBREEL 3 #50 2B/ 1338 - 1400 Mama yuli To tell the truth, I wasn’t really popular. (note: maybe saleable or marketable instead of popular?) So I didn’t keep changing sexual partners. So I was safe from that sort of danger.
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Vira in room and at computer |
Traditionally, waria sex workers would meet customers on the street but now - young waria, like vira, are also using social media to book clients from home
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Vira at computer to cam |
SUBREEL 4 #47 20/ 856 - 915 Vira My numbers on there. Yes, we put our numbers on there. People can contact us when they see us there. |
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Vira shots |
But one thing that has not changed is the stigma and discrimination. When Vira first got here it was almost impossible to get office work. She had few options.
SUBREEL 4 #73 8/ 1220 – 1229 VIra It’s not that we can’t work. But society may not accept us.
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Vira’s backstory is all too common among the waria
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Vira on street with vendor
Vira IV |
“This is me, You can’t stop being like this. I had a conflict with my family. They couldn’t accept me.”
“I ran away from home”
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She found her way to Jakarta and to Mama Yuli – who tried to help mediate with her parents. Unfortunately it didn’t work out the way Vira had hoped.
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| Vira
Are you sad? I’m traumatised. /. I’m just trying to do my best for my family. I miss my little brothers. You haven’t seen them again? I went home once. But my father still couldn’t accept me. That’s all. |
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Vira get ready to go out
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Rejected by her parents Vira has had to forge a new future. But she is not alone. Working with Mama Yuli she is part of the next generation working for waria rights.
She juggles her activism with a hectic work schedule.
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Getting ready
Boyfriend watches TV
On motorbike – drives off |
After getting ready for the night she drags her boyfriend away from the football....
.... and they head out to see her first client.
Vira is focused on making money now while she’s still young - because she’s seen older waria who can no longer trade on their looks struggle to survive
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Mama Yuli enters drop in center
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SUBREEL 5 #38 Mama Yuli Shalom – how are you all? – Fine
In Indonesia families look after their elders but most warias they have no one to rely on but themselves.
This has inspired Mama Yuli to open a drop-in center for aging waria. |
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Mami Yuli IV
| SUBREEL 1 #125 12/010959 – 1039 Mama Yuli Most waria. 85 per cent of waria in Indonesia, most came to the city when their parents rejected them. Their parents and siblings were ashamed of them. So they ran away. Without education or skills they tend to work as buskers or street sex workers. That’s what makes them live like that. They’re marginalized because they’re poor.
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WS Waria in orange dress
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“We don’t discriminate here. Whatever your job is everyone is welcome.”
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| Waria IV
WS Waria in orange dress
| SUBREEL 4 #86 412 old waria They train us in new skills, such as cutting hair... cooking
SUBREEL 4 #75 12/1150 - 1216 waria She’s still on the street. This one services electrical goods door to door. She’s looking for casual work. She can do anything. This one does massage. She’s a masseuse.
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| Overlay Drop in center
Mama Yuli walking around construction site next to drop in center |
“Behind this wall, I will make the kitchen neater behind this wall, and use plaster to render. I will ask for help from them.”
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| Mama Yuli’s drop in center also serves as retirement home. The first of its kind in Indonesia – today university students from the department of criminology are visiting.
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Mami Yuli talks to students | SUBREEL 4 #91 12/3223 - 3251 Yuli
“ Many of my friends were bashed, arrested, tortured, stripped... A religious group cut off one friend’s leg. Waria have been set alight, shot dead, mutilated...Even though I’ve seen numerous incidents, when we go to the police they don’t help. They always say that it’s our fault.”
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The students are typical young moderate Indonesians - But they've have never had any contact with waria before - and meeting Yuli has given them new insight
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12/010519 - 0522 Over the last 5 years there has been significant change
| SUBREEL 4 #100 12/010027 - 0116 Student And in your class are there still people who don’t agree with waria rights?
I think that most of them are probably like that. Even we used to think like that. Then we talked to Yuli and it’s so different. They’re really innovative when it comes to their rights.
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Islamic hardliners protest |
While many Indonesians are starting to accept waria the threat from the small but vocal group of extremists is still very real.
SUBREEL 1 #94 955 – 1003 FPI DEMO ARCHIVE We’re in front of the Moral Destroying Commission. The Human Rights Commission defends homos and lesbians.
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Everyday Indonesian people on the street with music
Islamic hardliners protest
Mama Yuli walk into congress - preparations
Waria conference |
Socioligist Julia Suryakusuma
“in Indonesian society we’re very fond of claiming we are very tolerant and moderate, and it is true in fact,/ The majority are actually very tolerant of waria./ But extremists groups / create a lot of noise and they’re the ones that make all the protests”
Protest chanting, ….
These hardliners often target waria events – shutting down their meetings and beauty pageants... so preparations for the national waria congress - have been kept under wraps.
Dateline is the only invited media.
Its not a good idea to publicize that waria have flown in from 15 provinces across Indonesia for the 2 day meeting
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| Some welcome moment here |
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People meeting in groups, conference montage |
It’s a busy few days of brainstorming and discussion about the many issues they face
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Waria Getting in room |
All of the delegates are staying at the conference centre hotel – 5 or 6 to each room
There’s never seems to be enough time for them to make themselves up before the next session.
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| SUBREEL 1 #104 Alexa walks off 7/ 4810 finally finished
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8/4718 alexas shoes legs in background
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But there’s no sign of make up or high heels in the room next door ...
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Congress overlay
Transmen at congress
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These guys were born women and live as men. They’re less visible than waria and known as Priawan. That’s the words for Woman and Man again– but this time reversed.
The younger generation prefer the term ‘Transman” because it doesn’t have woman in it |
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Pritz
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7/700 - 717 Pritz
“In here (point to head) since I was little I feel like I am a man, I talk like a man and I think like a man, everything I do is like a man”
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Photos of Aditya as child with family |
SUBREEL 4 #6 6/4808 - 4837 Adit It started when I had to wear different clothes to school from my brother.
Aditya is classed as intersex - born with a vagina but with testicles inside his body.
It took many years of psychological hell with his parents- to figure that out. |
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Aditya IV | SUBREEL 4 #8 6/4842 – 4909 Aditya They always said “You’re a girl. They’re boys.” But I thought that was strange. I felt that I was like them. But my mother especially indoctrinated me, saying “You’re a girl
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photos |
I was depressed. / When I looked in the mirror I thought “It’s not me.”
Like so many transgender and intersex people who have lacked family support, Aditya has gone to extreme lengths in his desperation.
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Aditya IV |
SUBREEL 4 #29 6/011205 - 1225 Adit I cut myself quite a lot. Then I drank insecticide. A few times I tried to kill myself using more extreme means.
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His mother now feels like she has lost a daughter – but Aditya feels better about himself than ever before.
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6/ 011336 – 1348
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SUBREEL 4 #36 6/011300 – 1317 Adit I began to reveal myself as I really am without being afraid of what people might say.
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Now he wants to have an operation to release the testicles trapped inside him
Pritz too – wants surgical solutions
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Pritz IV |
“I was born in the wrong body please god let me die in the right body. Its simple like that OK”
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MAYANG PRASETYO photos
News footage
Tabloid cover “Monster Chef and the She Male” |
In every hotel room - one topic keeps coming up – the horrible murder/suicide in Brisbane last year of Mayang Prasetyo.
She was the Indonesian waria who’s death was a big splash for the tabloid press in both Australia and Indonesia.
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News report |
“Marcus Volt took his girlfriend, Mayang’s life in the most gruesome way”
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Photos and news footage
Shot of family
Michel IV |
A transsexual woman, murdered and cooked by her husband, was a sex worker who was supporting her family in Indonesia.
SUB REEL 3 8/3850 - 3858 Michel The media took up the issue of Mayang being transgender. It was provocative and negative towards Mayang.
Much of the media eroticized Mayang with tantalizing headlines, while others referred to her only as man and ignored her chosen gender completely.
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News footage |
Michel retrieved his friend’s body and took her home to her parents
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News footage Funeral
| SUB REEL 3 8/4356 Michel #33 There were 40 or 50 cars in procession with the body. And all along the road the people of Lampung lined the road to see Mayang.
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| Delegates get ready to get on bus
Delegates and David on bus the |
Mayang is on everyone’s minds - especially today.
Its international Transgender memorial day – held each year to remember the victims of transphobia attacks worldwide.
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BUS TRIP TO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION |
The Jakarta crew have finished up at their congress and are on the way to the national human rights commission to present their congress declaration on their human rights. They want their gender recognized legally.
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Julia Suryakusuma IV
Bus overlay, arrive at Human Rights commission |
“The way things are its as if they are denied citizenship because unless you can say on your identity card you are a third gender then you don’t have full rights and citizenship, its not recognized as a waria, as a third gender that you are a citizen”.
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Woman from Human Rights commission (need name & title) ??? |
SUBREEL 6 11/1930 - 2030 HR commissioner It is forbidden to use violence, torture and the like against the LGBT groups. There can be no discrimination against LGBT
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Night shot Yogyakarta |
Fine words - but that very evening – 500 km away four warias are attacked at another event marking transgender memorial day in Yogyakarta.
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| YOGYAKARTA
Buskers and people in night market |
16/4225 Upsot buskers |
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BUSKERS |
Its odd – because Yogyakarta is a city with a reputation for tolerance - Where waria buskers roam the streets unmolested – even admired |
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Buskers and patrons at night |
SUB 3 16/5155 - 5202 Locals Beautiful? which one? Both of them. Beautiful, sexy.
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Most locals just laugh along with them.
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16/5215 Buskers sing
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| Muhammed Fuad and fellow extremist walk down street and into mosque to pray |
But they wouldn’t want to sing their song to this man.
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In mosque |
SUBREEL 3 #6 17/ 1107 - 1127 Muhammed Fuad What if a waria comes busking? - We throw them out. We throw them out. We don’t tolerate people like that.
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Muhammad Fuad is from the Yogyakarta branch of Islamic hardliners - Forum Umat Islam.
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Muhammed Fuad IV
Mosque
| SUBREEL 3 #8 17/1112 Continues We’re disturbed by the way they dress, By their presence, their behavior. They shouldn’t be allowed to feel normal. |
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17/3510 prayer
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He insists his group had nothing to do with the waria attack on transgender memorial day... but says it’s a good lesson for them. |
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Muhammed Fuad IV
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“They have to learn that they can’t flaunt themselves in public.”
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Shots of Indonesia street
Dave & greets Mama Shinta
Mama Shinta IV |
But Indonesia is full of surprises. Also in Yogyakarta, in a typical family neighborhood there is even an Islamic school, or pesantren, especially for waria
Its run by Mama Shinta.
“Waria is something we have to live with and accepting that makes us closer to the creator. The one who makes us waria is Allah”
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Waria pryaing and reading Quoran | Every Sunday they gather to discuss the place of waria in Islam and study the Quran
Upsot reading quran together
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Waria chanting
Waria praying |
“The spiritual part of us, the soul needs to be nurtured in any possible way, nurturing their spirits and talking about anything.”
Islam in Indonesia is much more tolerant its certainly not like Islam in the middle east – I like to call it tropical Islam
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Waria on mats praying in full Jobab
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Here unlike in Mosques elsewhere waria can pray as women and not feel like sinners. The pensantren has even achieved support from the local government.
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Muhammed Fuad IV
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“It should be closed as soon as possible. We think its wrong. Its an insult to the teachings of Islam.”
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USTAD IV
Waria Praying with USTAD |
“Islam accepts the waria because when Allah sees us, because Allan sees only his servants he doesn’t see their sexuality.
Muzayyin Ahyer is not a waria but the USTAD, or religious leader and teacher, who leads the prayers here. His attendance is controversial amongst his friends and family.
“In the beginning my family disagreed, especially my mum, she was actually rejecting fate and ignoring my destiny. After lots of discussion and time they came to understand.”
“For me, I want to do something for humanity and for me waria are human beings so they should receive legitimacy from society.”
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Reprise Montage of waria from program
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After many years of struggling for waria rights, Mama Yuli’s family have also come around.
Aunty (WOB – she)
ALT: Despite the imminent executions, many Indonesians still see President Widodo as a reformer. There is hope he will usher in a new era of greater acceptance for all minorities – and a breakthrough on waria rights.
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DORCE
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Upsot comedian Dorce
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The initial signs are good – if his reaction to waria comedian Dorce is anything to go by.
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Montage & music
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Mama Yuli hopes that one day – Indonesian waria will echo the success of other transgender people around the world
SUBREEL 4 #116 12/0831- 0858 Yuli In 10 to 20 years’ time, if there are 3000 or 5000 waria graduates, it may be different. |
| Julia
Mama Yuli
Julia
Mama Yuli |
“The waria, or transgender want to play a role in life, in society.”
“They could be bank directors, ministers of state. That could change society’s negative image.”
But the challenge is there for the entire Indonesian society. The way that waria is treated is a reflection of what kind of nation state do we want.”
“I’m sure that in the future there will be an opening that allows waria to be accepted in society.”
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