Transcript of the Press Briefing by the Foreign Office Spokesperson on December 29 dnd.com.pk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dnd.com.pk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
With an election in just 13 months, the government is more worried about winning votes than about international push back to its controversial new legislation.
Although it is the world’s fourth largest country by population, and the third largest democracy, Indonesia usually attracts comparatively little attention overseas. But it has had a good year on the international stage with its successful Presidency of the G20 and its coming chairmanship of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Economist was moved to write: “Why Indonesia matters: Indonesia is back on the map. In the next decade it will only become more important.”
Many Muslim nations criminalize gay sex including World Cup host Qatar. Appeals for change from LGBTQ-friendly nations are routinely dismissed as unwarranted interference.
On the outskirts of Yogyakarta, an Indonesian city that's home to many universities, is a small boarding school with a mission that seems out of place in a nation with more Muslim citizens than any other. Its students are transgender women.