Seorang transgender laki-laki telah ditahan oleh pihak yang berwajib di Kuwait karena adanya sebuah kampanye publik bertemakan “against immorality’. Yaitu sebuah kampanye yang melakukan penahanan terhadap orang-orang yang dianggap melakukan tindakan “amoral”.
Menurut berita harian di Kuwait Tiga insiden terpisah telah terjadi dalam rentang waktu seminggu. Salah satu diantaranya menimpa seorang remaja berusia 18 tahun, ia mengenakan busana tradisonal kuwait yaitu dishdasha and ghutra. ia dianggap telah melakukan kebohongan publik dengan berpenampilan laki-laki. Menurut keterangan seorang aktifis transgender di Kuwait, kejadian itu bermula ketika ada seorang transgender laki-laki “digoda” oleh sekelompok orang yang keliru mengira bahwa mereka pikir orang yang digoda adalah seorang Transgender perempuan. Karena tidak terima dengan perlakuan orang yang mengodanya, Transgender laki-laki itupun membuat perlawanan hingga terjadi kerusakan.
Dalam insiden tersebut dua toko rusak, tak lama setelah kejadian kemudian polisi datang untuk melerai pertikaian tersebut. dengan dalih untuk melindungi namun malah polisi ikut intervensi dengan mengiring Transgender laki-laki tersebut kekantor polisi terdekat dengan dakwaan terjadinya kebohongan publik. Al-Anba melaporkan.
Pada tahun 2007 anggota parlemen Islam di Kuwait telah melakukan/menerapkan sebuah undang-undang yang sangat mendiskriminasikan Transgender , yaitu barang siapa yang meniru penampilan lawan jenis dapat dikenakan hukuman kurungan selama satu tahun dan tau membayar denda sampai sampai 1.000 dinar ($ 3.500 € 2.800).
Undang-undang pasal 198 KUHP tersebut, telah menyebabkan penganiayaan besar dan penderitaan kepada orang-orang transgender di Kuwait. Human Rights Watch pada tanggal 15 Januari 2012 tahun ini mengkritik penangkapan, penyiksaan dan penganiayaan dari orang-orang transgender di negara tersebut.
Insiden lain adalah adanya seorang Istri kehilangan suaminya dengan seorang Transgender, kemudia iapun melaporkan kepada polisi tentang kejadian yang ia alami. Polisi melakukan pencarian hingga kemudian sang suami diketahui sedang berada disebuah rumah susun bersama seorang transgender. Malang tak dapat ditolak, Transgender itupun dituduh telah melakukan perzinahan. Dan mendapatkan hukuman 100 kali cambukan.
Menurut surat kabar Al-Rai, Insiden lainya terjadi disebuah kafe. Tiga perempuan ditangkap karena diduga telah menjual alat-alat seksual. Aktivis transgender Kuwait mengatakan ia prihatin bahwa tuduhan ini mungkin palsu untuk menciptakan sensasional ke publik, dengan demikan polisi digambarkan sebagai sosok sempurna penjaga moralitas. ‘Saya sangat khawatir pelecehan dan penyiksaan akan menjadi hal yang “lumrah” ketika para korban didalam rumah tahanan, selain itu ada sebuah skenario besar yang dilakukan oleh polisi agar mereka mendapatkan penghormatan lebih dari parlement karena telah berhasil melakukan kerja dengan baik, namun yang paling mengerikan adalah bahwa saat ini media di Kuawit terlalu tunduk pada islam”.
sumber : www.pinknews.co.uk
A transgender man has been arrested as Kuwait continues a campaign against ‘immorality’ which includes LGBT people among its targets.Three separate incidents were reported by Kuwaiti media yesterday all in a sensationalist manner which appears designed to stir up public feeling.
In the first, an 18-year-old Kuwaiti transgender man was arrested after a fight broke out between a group of young men over his ‘male-like’ appearance. He was dressed in the traditional Kuwaiti male dishdasha and ghutra. He was reported in the press to be a ‘cross dresser’ but a transgender activist in Kuwait confirmed to that is a transgender man.
The men mistakenly thought the transgender man was a male-to-female transgender woman and started to harass him. Two shops were damaged during the transphobic incident and the police arrested some of the men who caused the damage. Instead of protecting or intervening to help, the police arrested him and he was charged with ‘imitating the opposite sex,’ reported Al-Anba.
The ‘offence’ relates to a 2007 bill pushed forward by Islamic MPs that amended article 198 of penal code so that anyone ‘imitating the appearance of a member of the opposite sex’ could be jailed for up to a year or fined up to 1,000 dinars ($3,500 €2,800). This law has been causing substantial persecution and misery to transgender people in Kuwait and was slammed in a Human Rights Watch report published on 15 January this year criticizing arrests, torture and abuse of transgender people in the country.
In another incident Al-Rai, one of the influential Kuwaiti daily papers ran an article about a man who asked police detectives to locate his wife who left him. The police broke into her flat as they thought she was committing adultery, which is a crime in Kuwait carrying a punishment of 100 lashes or three years in prison. The wife however claimed that she left her husband and home because he was having sex with transgender people. The police ‘verified’ the information and thus did not take any action against the woman.
According to a Kuwaiti transgender activist these ongoing ‘moral campaigns’ are an attempt by the ruling royal family to appease MPs from the Islamist parties that now have a majority in Parliament with 34 out of 50 seats. She stated: ‘I am worried about the media sensationalism trying to pander to the Islamists.
‘They may well set a trap for the alleged transgender people in order to arrest them, if they haven’t done so already.’ In another incident, also reported by Al-Rai, a group of three Filipino women working in a café were arrested for attempting to sell sexual gadgets for a woman. The Kuwaiti transgender activist said she was concerned that these allegations might be false in order to create more sensationalist fervour with the police depicted as heroic guardians of morality. ‘I am also very worried about the abuse and torture they would face while in detention’, she added.
source : www.pinknews.co.uk
