Trans and Muslim: Portraying the Lives of Warias in Indonesia
September 20, 2012
By erenhttp://www.patheos.com/blogs/mmw/2012/09/trans-and-muslim-portraying-the-lives-of-warias-in-indonesia/The Warias: Indonesia's Transsexual Muslims is a short documentary that presents the lives of Indonesian transsexuals, or warias, as they are called. In this film Hannah Brooksvisits an Islamic school for transsexuals. The star of the film is Maryani, a 50-year-old transsexual who owns a beauty salon and runs the Senin-Kamis School for waria from the back of the beauty salon. In addition to her involvement with the trans community and her job, Maryani raises her adopted daughter on her own.
The film does a great job in drawing the line between the interviewees' sacred connection to God and the earthly rejection they face in a variety of ways. First, it shows the conflict between pre-Islamic gender standards and those endorsed by the introduction of Islam to Indonesia in the 13th century.
Then, it draws on the lifestyles in which the warias decide to engage with Islam, which sometimes could seem paradoxical or incompatible. Finally, and most importantly I believe, it shows that Islam, for the warias, transcends the community that rejects them and is concentrated on their relationship with the divine. Yet, as the film shows, sometimes the relationship with Allah has to be developed, and for that the warias need a safe place.
Indonesia's Transsexual Muslims (Documentary)
