Twelve trans women detained in Aceh were kicked, slapped and had shots fired in the air to keep them in line in a humiliating display of discrimination.

The world was shocked when images of the trans women having their hair forcibly shaved by local police were published in Indonesia’s conservative Islamic province. Aceh is the only Indonesian province allowed to rule using Islamic Sharia Law.

For the first time since that night they have shared what happened to them on the condition of anonymity. Amnesty International Indonesia interviewed them in secret.

Police conducted a late night raid on Saturday 27 January at multiple hair salons where the women worked and rounded them up. Police justified the raids as a war ‘programme to clean Aceh from transgender women’. Read their interview via Gay Star News