In brief
Ratu Thalisa, a Muslim transgender woman with a significant following on TikTok, has been sentenced to two years and ten months in prison after a court deemed her remarks during a livestream as blasphemous. The controversy erupted after she responded to a viewer's comment suggesting she cut her hair to look more masculine, in which she whimsically addressed a photo of Jesus on her phone. The case has raised alarms about freedom of expression in Indonesia, leading human rights organizations such as Amnesty International to call for her release and a re-evaluation of the country's Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) Law, known for penalizing online speech. Thalisa's conviction is notable as it highlights the complexities of religious sentiment in a country with a predominantly Muslim population, where instances of blasphemy against Christianity are relatively rare.
