Woman Disguised as Man Stopped from Marrying Another Woman

July 27, 2011
Old flame saves bride at Indonesia same-sex wedding
By Neil Chatterjee | Reuters – 19 hrs ago

JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian family stopped a wedding after discovering the groom was a woman, only for an ex-boyfriend to save their blushes by stepping in to marry the bride.

Family and guests gathered to read the Koran at the Islamic ceremony in western Java, but the groom did not bring relatives and suspicions were raised when "Rio" failed to show documents, the Jakarta Globe newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"The suspicion became bigger as her heavy voice suddenly changed into a female one," the newspaper quoted local police chief Krisnandi as saying, adding the groom had a male physique and had known bride Nuraini for seven months.

"The family finally got Kiman, the ex-boyfriend, as the new groom for Nuraini in order to save face in front of their guests," Krisnandi said.

Homosexuality is not illegal in the world's most populous Muslim country, though same-sex marriages are not allowed. Same-sex marriages became legal in New York earlier this month, prompting hundreds of gay and lesbian couples to wed.

(Writing by Neil Chatterjee; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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There are so many bizarre things with this story, I hardly know where to begin! 

First of all, how could the woman who had disguised herself as a man GET AWAY WITH IT FOR AT LEAST SEVEN MONTHS? 

Second, how did these two meet?  It's not like Muslim chicks go out clubbing to meet guys. Aren't these introductions to prospective mates arranged either through family or through a matchmaker?  How on earth did this woman posing as a man fool everyone involved?

Third, was the intended bride duped by the impersonation?

Holy Goddess!  I know customs are different in the Muslim world so that the intended bride would not have been allowed to be alone with the intended groom, but honestly, did the fake man never have to pee while in the company of men?  How was that handled? 

Fourth, since the male impersonator knew "he" didn't have proper "papers" (whatever that means), how on earth could she have agreed to a marriage - and then actually show up at the ceremony?  No family present - talk about a GIANT RED FLAG.  Ohmygoddess!

Fifth, poor bride!  Forced to take a rejected suitor as a husband in order for her family to "save face!"  If this "former flame" was so great, why wasn't she married off to him to begin with, heh? 

Something is terribly wrong here, and obviously we don't have the full story, and probably never will.

Now, what is going to happen to the woman who impersonated a man?  Will she be killed for "honor?"  And will whoever does the killing be able to get away with it?  (Probably)

I'm hunting for further information...

From the Jakarta Globe

Groom Was a She, But an Old Flame Reignites Wedding
Zaki Pawas | July 27, 2011

Serang, Banten. A wedding party turned into humiliation for the bride’s family after it was discovered that the groom was actually a woman, but thankfully an ex-boyfriend was willing to step in.

The Sunday wedding at Binung village, Carenang subdistrict, began normally with family, guests, village officials and witnesses present for the reading of the Koran.

But the groom, Rio, raised suspicions because he was not accompanied by any relatives and he failed to show complete documents needed for the ceremony, Serang Police Chief Adjunct Sr. Comr. Krisnandi said on Tuesday.

“When asked about her parents, she said she had none. The suspicion became higher as her heavy voice suddenly changed to a female voice,” Krisnandi said.

The cleric asked the bride’s family to bring Rio to a room for a “physical examination” and it was revealed that Rio was a woman whose real name was Erni, he said.

The angry family asked to postpone the ceremony and reported Erni to police.

But the wedding was saved by a former boyfriend of Nuraini, the bride, who volunteered to be a replacement.

“The family finally got Kiman, the ex-boyfriend, as the new groom for Nuraini in order to save face in front of their guests,” the officer said.

Nuraini was introduced to Erni by a friend “and was unsuspicious because Erni has the physical shape of a man and her voice is also like a man’s,” he said, adding that the two had known each other for seven months before Sunday.

Erni is being detained at the police office in Serang. Police have yet to name her a suspect.

Note: There's more to this Jakarta Globe article - about other cases of "accidental marriage." Incredible! 

When Girls Will Be Boys

From The New York Times. Thousands of years ago, so-called "transgender" persons weren't persecuted and treated as social pariahs. Are we getting back to the point, historically, where people with hermaphroditic traits are "coming out" to claim their rights and place in society? By ALISSA QUART Published: March 16, 2008 It was late on a rainy fall day, and a college freshman named Rey was showing me the new tattoo on his arm. It commemorated his 500-mile hike through Europe the previous summer, which happened also to be, he said, the last time he was happy. We sat together for a while in his room talking, his tattoo of a piece with his spiky brown hair, oversize tribal earrings and very baggy jeans. He showed me a photo of himself and his girlfriend kissing, pointed out his small drum kit, a bass guitar that lay next to his rumpled clothes and towels and empty bottles of green tea, one full of dried flowers, and the ink self-portraits and drawings of nudes that he had tacked to the walls. Thick jasmine incense competed with his cigarette smoke. He changed the music on his laptop with the melancholy, slightly startled air of a college boy on his own for the first time. Rey’s story, though, had some unusual dimensions. The elite college he began attending last year in New York City, with its academically competitive, fresh-faced students, happened to be a women’s school, Barnard. That’s because when Rey first entered the freshman class, he was a woman. Rest of article. I only hope that Rey was honest and upfront with his girlfriend and told her that "he" was a actually a she.