Between Worlds: Jilbab and Transgender in Indonesia  It is a
scene that wouldn’t be unfamiliar in France or Belgium: a
woman’s hijab is snatched away by strangers on the street from
her head despite her protest. She is told she shouldn’t wear it,
or rather, she has no right to because her wearing it mocks
other women and femininity itself. But it is not an episode of
Islamophobic rage that is recounted by Shuniyya Rumaha
Haiibalah, but an incident in her native Indonesia that would
later become the title of her best-selling memoir, Jangan lepas
jilbabku! (Please do not remove my jilbab!)  Haiibalah is Muslim
and transgender. The hostile reactions from other women and men
towards her decision to wear the jilbab (hijab) in public was
based on the belief of the irreconcilability of being waria*
(transgender) and expressing religiosity in the gender of
choice.  While other waria do not mix gender identity with
religious identity (as the video above shows, some transwomen
dress as men in places of worship), women