Jailing of Indonesian trans woman for Jesus’ hair remark raises rights concerns

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”. “The Indonesian authorities should not use the country’s Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) law to punish people for comments made on social media,” Hamid said. Indonesia’s EIT law was introduced in 2008 under then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to regulate emerging online issues such as electronic payments and cybercrimes like phishing. It also includes a broad legal framework covering offences such as defamation, hate speech and blasphemy in digital spaces. While the law was rarely used in its initial years, it was invoked more frequently under Yudhoyono’s successor, former president Joko Widodo, due to the rise of the internet and Indonesians’ increasing use of social media. “While Indonesia should prohibit the advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, Ratu Thalisa’s speech act does not reach that threshold,” Hamid said. “This sentence highlights the increasingly arbitrary and repressive application of Indonesia’s EIT law to violate freedom of expression. The authorities must quash Ratu Thalisa’s conviction, ensure her immediate and unconditional release and repeal or make substantial revisions of problematic provisions in the EIT law criminalising ‘immorality, defamation, and hate speech’.” Andreas Harsono, a researcher at Human Rights Watch Indonesia, told This Week in Asia that the prosecution and sentencing of Thalisa was problematic, particularly as she was reacting to comments about her appearance. He said: “There is no need to prosecute, moreover to punish, the transgender woman in Medan who had made that remark, especially knowing the context that she was merely defending herself after being told to cut her long hair.” It is another warning that Indonesia should seriously repeal the toxic legislation to prevent such abuses Andreas Harsono, Human Rights Watch Indonesia’s research According to Andreas, both Islamist and Christian groups have misused Indonesia’s blasphemy regulations to target their critics and as political weapons. “It is another warning that Indonesia should seriously repeal the toxic legislation to prevent such abuses,” he added. Thalisa was arrested in October last year after five Christian groups in North Sumatra filed complaints to the Indonesian police, alleging that her live stream constituted blasphemy and had offended Christians. When she was sentenced to jail, Thalisa was also told by the court that she would have to pay a fine of about US$6,200. According to data provided by Amnesty International Indonesia, some 121 people have been convicted of blasphemy in the country since 2018. Many of these blasphemy convictions had been prosecuted through the EIT law, Amnesty said. From 2019 to 2024, at least 560 individuals were charged with violations of the EIT law, including for offences such as defamation and hate speech, of whom 421 were convicted. In 2023, a Muslim woman was jailed for two years for reciting an Islamic prayer while eating pork on camera. A TikTok influencer was arrested last year on blasphemy charges after asking what kind of animals could read the Koran – the Islamic holy book. Ranto Sibarani, a human rights lawyer based in Medan – the provincial capital of North Sumatra – told This Week in Asia that the legalities of Thalisa’s case were difficult to argue against. “The relevancy according to the law is that she was found guilty of mocking a picture of a religious symbol,” he said. “According to the EIT law, that constituted blasphemy. Even though I do not agree with the blasphemy law, now that Thalisa has been proven guilty, she must follow the rules.” Sibarani had previously defended a Chinese-Indonesian Buddhist named Meliana in Medan, who was prosecuted under the same law for allegedly complaining about the volume of the speakers at a local mosque used to broadcast the Islamic call to prayer. The human rights lawyer had challenged that there was no evidence that Meliana made any such comments about the mosque’s speaker system but she was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to two years in prison. In Thalisa’s case, however, there was a recording of her live stream and comments, which were used as evidence against her, Sibarani said. “Still, I hope this is the last victim of the blasphemy law.”

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