Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Al Fatah Pesantren Waria, an Islamic boarding school for transgendered people, has decided to continue its operations at another place following the forced closure of the school's religious education facility last week.
The school's director, Shinta Ratri, said that since the closure, they had moved the education facilities to her house, where 45 students took part in religious classes every Sunday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. "We can't accept the closure, and we will keep helping the students so they can keep learning," she said.
Shinta said that the school's management had decided during a meeting that they would also find a new place where they could conduct their religious education activities without the fear of intimidation. "Based on our internal decision, we're going to find a new place but we haven't found the right one yet," she said.
A meeting involving local administration officials, residents, the school's director and members of the hard-line Islamist group Islamic Jihad Front (FJI) Yogyakarta, decided to shut the school down and ban the school from organizing religious activities.
The decision was made because the school did not have a license to operate and locals had complained about late-night karaoke and parking problems. It was also claimed that alcoholic drinks had been found at the school. The school was built in 2008.
The school's advisory board member Abdul Muhaimin said that despite the ban, the school would continue its operations as he believed that all the activities conducted there were positive ones.
"Transgendered people have the same right as anyone else to engage with religion, and that should be guaranteed by the country. There are many abandoned buildings that belong to the Yogyakarta administration. These could be used for the school," he said.
A cleric who has been teaching at the school, Arif Nuh Safri, also ensured those concerned that while he was teaching there, no activities were found to have strayed from Islamic values. "YS, for example, is a transgendered woman, but she has finished Iqra Arabic reading lessons," he said.
Aditya Arief Firmanto of the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Foundation said the decision to close down the school constituted a human rights violation. "We will also report this to the National Commission on Human Rights and the National Commission on Violence Against Women in Jakarta," he said.