By South China Morning Post | Created at 2026-08-10 07:32:02 | Updated at 2026-08-10 08:01:56
38 minutes ago
Indonesia’s top Islamic clerical body has warned men not to wear “women’s clothing” for Independence Day festivities despite a long-standing tradition of men in dresses playing football as part of the annual fun.
Amid a rising tide of anti-LGBTQ sentiment in the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nation, the influential 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 hijab 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.
