Indonesia clerics warn against men in dresses for independence festivities

JAKARTA: Indonesia's top Islamic clerical body has warned men not to wear "women's clothing" for Independence Day festivities despite a long tradition of men in dresses playing football as part of the annual fun.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) said in a statement such behaviour was "haram" or forbidden.

The MUI said its intervention was "an effort to prevent the covert campaign of the Lesbian, Gay, Sodomy and Obscenity (LGSP) movement" — the acronym it promotes as an alternative to LGBT for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.

Each year, Indonesians engage in games and parades to celebrate the nation's declaration of independence on August 17, 1945, from centuries of colonisation.

Across the vast archipelago, citizens take part in tugs of war, sack races and cracker-eating contests, clamber up greased poles and attend colourful float parades.

In some communities, men put on dresses and hijabs to play football, a tradition widely seen as comical and not a statement on gender identity. Men sometimes also dress up to take part in independence parades.

But in last week's statement, the MUI's Fatwa Commission said "the rise of deviant actions such as male participants in women's clothing... is considered to have led to violations of sharia and social norms".

The warning also goes for women dressing as men.

It is not the first time the MUI has spoken out against cross dressing, but the latest warning follows a spate of physical attacks on gay people and a presidential regulation classifying "LGBTQ culture" as a security threat.

Dede Oetomo, founder of the GAYa Nusantara rights group, told AFP that men playing soccer or parading in what are traditionally women's clothes "is a long-time custom and part of Independence Day celebrations in many communities."