When Elianu Hiya shared Video On Facebook in January 2021, he never imagined that this act would cost him his home and small business in the Indonesian city of Padang, West Sumatra.
Hiya was upset that school rules required her 17-year-old Christian daughter to wear a hijab to school. He Recorded a meeting with her daughter’s teacher at State Technical High School No. 2, during which the teacher pressured him into complying, saying: “It’s a school rule. This is a mandatory hijab rule. the teacher then told hiya To sign a letter confirming your daughter’s refusal to wear the hijabWhich was clearly a step towards getting him expelled.
The video went viral, being picked up by local and national media, prompting many netizens to protest the West Sumatra School and Education Office. Indonesian Education Minister Nadeem Makarim posted a Video It condemned the mandatory hijab rule and told the local government that the school should change its policy.
School compliance, making an exception to the hijab rule for Christian students. In the past two years, there has been an increase in the number of Christian girls who have dared to give up the hijab.
But during this time Hiya started getting threatening messages on him. Facebook And WhatsApp Accounts.
“I lost count,” he said. ,hundreds of them,
The threats ranged from demanding his expulsion from West Sumatra to accusing him of disrespecting Islamic culture. A WhatsApp user reminded him of what had happened minority between 1816 and 1833, When “Muslim clerics” established Sharia (Islamic law) and used violence against those who opposed them.
Hiya’s air conditioning business started losing customers. “I used to have 200-something customers,” he said. “Some clients asked me if I was the one who was opposing the mandatory hijab rule. And they stopped requesting my services.” He sacked five of his employees, sold his truck and minibus, struggling to pay off his bank loans.
In November 2022, Hiya and his wife decide to sell your house While waiting for my daughter to finish high school. “I can’t make enough money anymore. We have to move out of West Sumatra.”
The Hiya family is paying the price for speaking up on women’s right to choose. Indonesian President Joko Widodo needs Overturn all discriminatory, regressive local decrees that violate the rights of women and girls,