PoliticalGateway.com
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, April 13, 2006 (AFP) – Her face heavily made-up, ‘Bella Saphira’ struts a darkened length of cement path along the Krueng Aceh river in Indonesia’s Banda Aceh, wearing a loosely flowing dress but no Islamic veil.
Elsewhere in the staunchly-Muslim province of Aceh, which has been gradually implementing Islamic sharia law, Muslim women are required to cover their heads — but then, Saphira is not a woman.
She belongs to Banda Aceh’s small community of transvestites, who stake their claim on this riverside stretch every weekend after dark in an area where courting couples met before the December 2004 tsunami.
Tonight about 30 “waria” — Indonesian transvestites so named because they have the characteristics of a “wanita”, or girl, but are born a boy or “pria” — congregate and chat. Some are in full drag, others wear men’s clothing but wear carefully applied make-up.