Pesantren Al-Fattah: The Strugle of an Ascetic Waria to Create a Religious Space for Transgender Muslims in Indonesia
(1) Public High School 1st of Magelang
(2) Universitas Negeri Semarang
(3) Australian National University Australia
Abstract
This study seeks to describe the struggle of a Muslim transgender ascetic in claiming religious space for transgender in urban Indonesia by creating a pesantren (Islamic school). The study was conducted in Al-Fattah Pondok Pesantren, the only Islamic school for transgender in Indonesia. Al-Fattah is created by Bu Maryani, a transgender ascetic, who contributed her money, thought, energy and prayers for this school, to provide spiritual sanctuary for transvestites, despites her worsening economy and health. While many transvestites look for alternative religion, the experience of Al-Fattah reveal that transgender Muslims may find their religious sanctuary within traditional Islamic practices, not outside the traditional institutions. Al-Fattah transgender Islamic school reveal the power of lived religion, pesantren, and traditional forms of religious rituals to validate Queer spiritual practices. We argue that the use of the traditional forms of religious rituals enable the Muslim transgender to overcome the dilemma of fluidity-and-fixity in queer religious practices.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Amos, Kharma, R (2002). Queering Church: Integrating Queer Theology in Congregational Life in Metropolitan Community Churches Masters of Divinity, Lancaster Theological Seminary.
Abraham, I. (2009). ‘Out to get us’: queer Muslims and the clash of sexual civilisations in Australia. Contemporary Islam, 3(1), 79-97.
Abdo, DM. My Qarina, (2012) My Self: The Homoerotic as Islamic Feminism in Alifa Rifaat's "My World of the Unknown". J Lesbian Stud 16 (4), 398-415. 2012.
Amer, S . 2012. Naming to Empower: Lesbianism in the Arab Islamicate World . J Lesbian Stud 16 (4), 381-397. 2012.
Abdulhadi, R. 2010. “Sexualities and the Social Order in Arab and Muslim Communities.” In Habib, S, editor. Islam and Homosexuality, Vols 1 and 2. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger; 2010. p. 463-487.
Abraham, I. 2010. ‘” Everywhere You Turn You Have to Jump into Another Closet”: Hegemony, Hybridity, and Queer Australian Muslims.’ In Habib, S, editor. Islam and Homosexuality, Vols 1 and 2. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger;. p. 395-418.
Al- Haqq Kugle, S. 2010. Homosexuality in Islam: Critical Reflection on Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Muslims. Oxford: Oneworld Press
Bockting, W. O., & Cesaretti, C. (2001). Spirituality, transgender identity, and coming out. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 26(4), 291-300.
Bench, H. (2004). Queering Creole Spiritual Traditions: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Participation in African-Inspired Traditions in the Americas. African Arts, 37(4), 92-94.
Boellstorff, T. 2005. The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Blackwood, E. 2005. “Transnational Sexualities in One Place: Indonesian Readings.” Gender and Society, 19 (2): 221-242.
Kath Browne,Sally R. Munt. 2010. Queer Spiritual Spaces: Sexuality and Sacred Places. New York Routledge
Campos, M. S. (2012). The Baklâ: Gendered Religious Performance in Filipino Cultural Spaces.". Queer Religion: LGBT Movements and Queering Religion, 2, 167-91.
Dhofier, Z. 1982. Tradisi pesantren: studi tentang pandangan hidup kyai. Jakarta: LP3ES.
Lake, C. (1999). Recreations: Religion and spirituality in the lives of queer people. Queer Press.
Henrickson, M. (2007). A queer kind of faith: Religion and spirituality in lesbian, gay and bisexual New Zealanders. Aotearoa Ethnic Network Journal, 2(2), 6.
LePeau, L. (2007). Queer (y) ing religion and spirituality: Reflections from difficult dialogues exploring religion, spirituality, and homosexuality. College student affairs journal, 26(2), 186.
Hendricks, Pepe (2009) Hijab: unveiling queer Muslim lives. Cape Town Inner Circle
Hamizic, Vanja. 2012. The Resistance from an Alterspace: Pakistani and Indonesian Muslims beyond the Sexual and Gender Norms. In Peter Nynäs. 2012. Religion, Gender and Sexuality in Everyday Life. London: Routledge. P. 17-36
Halkitis, P. N., Mattis, J. S., Sahadath, J. K., Massie, D., Ladyzhenskaya, L., & Pitrelli, K. & Cowie, SAE (2009). The meanings and manifestations of religion and spirituality among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults. Journal of Adult Development, 16(4), 250-262.
Kidd, J. D., & Witten, T. M. (2008). Understanding spirituality and religiosity in the transgender community: Implications for aging. Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging, 20(1-2), 29-62.
Levy, D. L., & Lo, J. R. (2013). Transgender, transsexual, and gender queer individuals with a Christian upbringing: The process of resolving conflict between gender identity and faith. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 32(1), 60-83.
McGeorge, Christi R., Thomas Stone Carlson, and Russell B. Toomey. 2014. "The intersection of spirituality, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity in family therapy training: An exploration of students’ beliefs and practices." Contemporary Family Therapy 36.4: 497-506.
Marsh, V. (2007). Border crossings? Queer spirituality and Asian religion: a first person account. Gay & Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review, 3(2), 97-108.
Merabet, S. (2009). Queer Beirut: Social transformations in a war-torn city. Columbia University.
Moussawi, Ghassan. 2015. (Un)critically queer organizing: Towards a more complex analysis of LGBTQ organizing in Lebanon. Sexualities. 18: 593-617.
Norman, J. R. 2011. Congregational culture and identity politics in a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender synagogue: making inclusiveness and religious practice one and the same. Journal of Religion & Society. 1-19
O'Brien, J. (2004). Wrestling the angel of contradiction: Queer Christian identities. Culture and Religion, 5(2), 179-202.
Peumans, W. (2014). Queer Muslim migrants in Belgium: A research note on same-sex sexualities and lived religion. Sexualities, 17(5-6), 618-631.
Pellegrini, A. (2005). Testimony and Sexuality: or, Queer Structures of Religious Feeling: Notes Toward an Investigation. Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, (1), 93-102.
Paris, J. W., & Anderson, R. E. (2001). Faith-based Queer Space in Washington, DC: The Metropolitan Community Church-DC and Mount Vernon Square. Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 8(2), 149-168.
Rouhani, F. (2007). Religion, identity, and activism among transnational Queer Muslims. Geographies of sexualities: theory, practices and politics. Hampshire: Ashgate.
Rahman, M. (2010). Queer as intersectionality: Theorizing gay Muslim identities. Sociology, 44(5), 944-961.
Rodriguez, E. M., & Follins, L. D. (2012). Did God make me this way? Expanding psychological research on queer religiosity and spirituality to include intersex and transgender individuals. Psychology & Sexuality, 3(3), 214-225.
Schroeder, C. T. (2009). Queer Eye for the Ascetic Guy? Homoeroticism, Children, and the Making of Monks in Late Antique Egypt. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 77(2), 333-347.
Stuart, E. (1997). Religion is a queer thing: a guide to the christian faith for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. Burns & Oates.
Wilcox, M. M. (2009). Queer women and religious individualism. Indiana University Press.
Wilcox, M. M. (2002). When Sheila's a lesbian: Religious individualism among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians. Sociology of Religion, 63(4), 497-513.
Westerfield, E. M. E. (2012). Transgender peoples' experiences of religion and spirituality (Doctoral dissertation, North Dakota State University).
Wong, Y. 2012. Islam, Sexuality, and the Marginal Positioning of Pengkids and Their Girlfriends in Malaysia. J Lesbian Stud .16 (4), 435-448. 2012.
Yarhouse, M. A., & Carrs, T. L. (2012). MTF transgender Christians’ experiences: A qualitative study. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 6(1), 18-33.
Yip, A. K. T. (2015). Living Out Islam: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims. Sociology of Religion, 76(3), 360-361.
Boellstorff, T. “Between Religion and Desire: Being Muslim and Gay in Indonesia.” American Anthropologist, 2005; 107 (4): 575-585.
Hossain, A. “Beyond Emasculation: Being Muslim and Becoming Hijra in South Asia.” Asian Studies Review, 2012; 36: 495–513.
Jaspal, R, Siraj, A. “Perceptions of ‘coming out’ among British Muslim gay men”. Psychology & Sexuality,2011: 2 (3): 183–197.
Kahn, S. “Cast Out: “Gender Role Outlaws” Seeking Asylum in the West and the Quest for Social Connections.” Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 2015; 13:58–79.
Minwalla, O, Rosser, B, R, Simon, Feldman, J, Varga, C. ‘Identity experience among progressive gay Muslims in North America: A qualitative study within Al-Fatiha’, Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2005; 7 (2): 113 — 128
Peumans, W. “Queer Muslim migrants in Belgium: A research note on same-sex sexualities and lived religion.” Sexualities, 2014; 17(5/6) 618–631.
Rahman, M. “In Search of My Mother’s Garden: Reflections on Migration, Sexuality and Muslim Identity.” Nebula, 2008; 5.4: 1-25.
Siraj, A. 2006 “On Being Homosexual and Muslim: Conflicts and Challenges,” In Ouzgane, L, editor. Islamic Masculinities. London: Zed Books, p. 202-216.
Siraj, A. “The Construction of the Homosexual ‘Other’ by British Muslim Heterosexuals.” Contemporary Islam. 2009; 3 (1): 41-57.
Yip, A, K, T. “Embracing Allah and Sexuality? South Asian Non-Heterosexual Muslims in Britain.” In, K, A, Jacobsen, Kumar, P, P, editors. South Asians in the Diaspora. Leiden: Brill, 2004. p. 294-310.
Yip, A, K, T. “Religion and the Politics of Spirituality/Sexuality: Reflections on Researching British Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Christians and Muslims.” Fieldwork in Religion, 2005; 1 (3): 271-89
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.