Sulastri Ariffin and Nisha Ayub both work for an organisation, where they educate transgender women about their rights and create a place for those seeking protection.
They said that transgenders in Malaysia were always under threat, more so if they happened to be Muslims as religious authorities actively conduct raids and arrest those caught cross-dressing.
Recently, 17 transgender women were arrested for cross-dressing after the Negri Sembilan religious authorities raided a Malay wedding in Bahau. They served one week sentences and paid an RM950 fine each.
Human Rights Watch released a damning report yesterday, highlighting the various abuses the community in Malaysia had suffered which included sexual assault by religious officers and prison guards, extortion, daily fear of arrest by the authorities and violations of their privacy rights.
But Sulastri and Nisha, who were born as males, are no different, having been arrested and assaulted while in prison.
Speaking at the launch of the report yesterday, Nisha insisted the community had been the target of abuse just because they were different.
"We are not against Islam. But we are against the law that has been created by the state to discriminate against us,” said Nisha, who is also a member of rights group Justice for Sisters.
Recounting her life as as a transgender, 35-year-old Nisha said it was uneventful although she faced resistance from her strict family.
It was not until she was arrested by religious authorities in her hometown of Malacca when she was 21 that Nisha learnt life could be pretty harsh for people like her.
"By then, I already had my implants and I had long hair and dressed as a woman. I was a woman," she said.
The religious authorities stopped her and her friends on the street and detained her as she was a Muslim who was caught cross-dressing.
"They brought me to the court the next day and I pleaded guilty. I was sentenced to three months in prison and it was at that point my life changed."
Nisha said she was sexually assaulted in prison and forced to perform lewd sexual acts on other inmates just because she was a transgender.
"It was the first time I had sex. And the abuse pushed me to try killing myself a few times in prison."
She quickly realised that in order to protect herself from further abuse from the inmates, she would have to seek protection from a prison warden.
"So in return, I had to do sexual favours for him. It's not something I wanted to do but if I had not, I would have to face threats and abuse from the other inmates.
"The three months in prison felt like three years," she said.
The experience in prison stunned Nisha but it also turned her family around to accept her as a transgender.
"After I came out, that was when my family began to accept me. They realised that this is who I actually am."
By then, however, Nisha had lost her job as a hotel receptionist because of her detention and began working at a nightclub in Malacca to support herself and her mother.
“Indirectly, I was also a sex worker. And although I lived a luxurious life, I was not happy.”
But life in the vice trade, Nisha said, made her stronger and taught her many things, particularly about transgender issues relating to health and other aspects.
"After four years, I moved to Kuala Lumpur where, although I received many job opportunities, I decided to become an advocate for transgender rights."
Sulastri, 53, was also once a sex worker, forced into the trade after leaving her family in Kuching to
live her life as a transgender in the capital city.“I left Kuching because I had no freedom to express myself. Mine was a typical Malay family and I was afraid what people would say about us.
“I had low self-esteem and felt lousy about myself and it was very difficult for us to get jobs at that time, so I thought this was the right job for me. I continued on for six years.”
She was also arrested when living on the streets and charged. She escaped with a light punishment after being fined RM25.
She later realised that she should snap out of her self-loathing and do something more for herself.
"That's when I joined an NGO and became an advocate for transgender rights. At that time, it was not easy to get support.
“I myself only became more familiar with transgender issues after I joined social work.”
She is now the manager of a women's programme and works with those facing issues with their families and job discrimination.
“People in Malaysia keep confusing us with homosexuals. We are not homosexual.”
Both Sulastri and Nisha believe that they are helping the transgender community by empowering them with knowledge of their rights and the law.
"People think we are fighting for special rights but we are not. We are just fighting for equal rights," Nisha said.
"The more I began to advocate, the more I realised that I am not the only one who has gone through sexual abuse and discrimination." – September 26, 2014.
- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/spurned-and-abused-two-transwomen-now-push-for-equal-rights#sthash.Ig5DSBH1.dpuf
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