Jailing of Indonesian trans woman for Jesus’ hair remark raises rights concerns
Ratu Thalisa was convicted in Medan under a controversial blasphemy law and jailed for almost three years
The imprisonment of an Indonesian transgender influencer under a controversial blasphemy law for suggesting Jesus Christ needed a haircut has sparked concerns from human rights advocates about the country’s ongoing clampdown on freedom of speech.
A Medan court found social media personality Ratu Thalisa guilty of spreading hate speech against Christianity and sentenced her to two years and 10 months in jail on March 10.
The sentence followed a TikTok live stream on October 2 in which Thalisa, who also uses the online name Ratu Entok, responded to a comment that she should cut her hair to look like a man.
Thalisa, who is a Muslim transgender woman based in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, went live on her TikTok channel while holding a picture of Jesus, whom she said “should not look like a woman”.
“You [Jesus] should cut your hair [ …],” said Thalisa, who has over 400,000 followers.
In a statement provided to This Week in Asia, Amnesty International Indonesia’s Executive Director Usman Hamid described the sentence of 34 months in prison as “a shocking attack on Ratu Thalisa’s freedom of expression”.