Malaysian transgenders sexually abused, violated by religious authorities, report finds

By admin-s On Sep 25, 2014

(MMO) – Stripped naked. Sexually molested. Beaten. Extorted for money and sexual favours. Publicly humiliated on national television.

These are some of the atrocities allegedly committed by Malaysian state religious authorities on Muslim transgendered women, according to an exhaustive report on human rights abuses against the minority group released today.

The report by international watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW), which included interviews with 42 transwomen and three transmen, documents the tales of Muslims from the transgendered community who were allegedly persecuted under state Shariah laws, which prohibit cross-dressing.

“The laws against cross-dressing, in themselves, invite sexual abuse, as they may require religious officials to verify the sex of the individuals they arrest,” said the report, which was made available to Malay Mail Online yesterday.

In several cases, this resulted in religious department officials reportedly molesting the transwomen by touching their breasts, in order to ascertain their “realness”.

“They were rough. One of them squeezed my breasts. I was completely humiliated. … They stripped me completely naked.

“One of them took a police baton and poked at my genitals,” said a transwoman called Victoria in Seremban, who was arrested in 2011.

“They put me in the back seat of the car, between them. While [two of them] were touching my breasts and holding them, they asked, ‘How did you get this done?’,” said another who called herself Adik and was arrested in 2012, also in Seremban.

Besides sexual abuse, it was claimed that some transwomen were also physically hurt during raids by religious department officers, especially during their arrests.

“They chased me into a hotel and grabbed me. They hit me, punched me in the face, choked me, and told me I was guilty.