'Les Dames' du Bois de Boulogne

I Christianto, Contributor, Paris

It's was late at night at Bois de Boulogne, or Woods of Boulogne, a popular area of Paris. The summer sun was about to set and creatures including rabbits and night birds began to scurry about the city's forest that warm evening.

In other parts of the woods, other wild creatures -- human -- also began to scurry about in an endeavor for survival. They are prostitutes; mostly transvestites of various nationalities including Indonesians. Then there are the others; their customers, out to take a walk on the wild side.

The 865-hectare Bois de Boulogne lies on the western edge of Paris. It is famous -- and notorious -- because during the day the woods are a favorite destination for Parisian walkers, bicycle and horse riders. At night, however, it welcomes a very different population and becomes a red district, well known for transvestites (pre-operative male to female) and transsexual prostitutes.

Some Parisians believe that Bois de Boulogne is the only place in Paris where (male) sex hunters can find what they are looking for at a decent price, either la pipe (oral sex) or l'amour (in this case, anal sex).

Despite continuous action by the local constabulary at night, the woods continue to be the scene for transvestites of various nationalities including Yeyen, or Jasmine, from Indonesia.

"I am a prostitute, hooker, whore or whatever you want to call it. All of the Indonesian transvestites in Paris are prostitutes. No matter what. For that only reason they came here. In my case, I first came to Paris in January 2001. I spent six months here and then returned to Jakarta.

"In July 2001 I came back to Paris and have never returned to Jakarta since," Yeyen says, shortly before going back to her place earlier that day to prepare herself before going to the Bois.

Transvestites in Paris, nowadays, represent a very heterogeneous population regarding their cultural backgrounds, origins and language. In addition to the Bois de Boulogne, they can easily be spotted at bars or nightclubs near Boulevard de Clichy, for example. Local media claim that over half of the transvestites in Paris are foreigners, often illegal immigrants, coming from Latin America, North Africa, Portugal, Thailand and Indonesia.

Yeyen, Wulan and Fay are among dozens of Indonesian transvestites who have chosen careers on the street. Jasmine and Fay, however, recently "retired" as they had found "normal" jobs, while Jasmine still occasionally wanders the Bois.

When making the decision to go to Paris, they realize that they will face hard times and possible harassment for being illegal immigrants. But nonetheless, they regard living in Paris as better.

"Before leaving Jakarta for Paris in early 2000, I totally understood that I had to prostitute myself. But I considered that as a stepping-stone to a better life. I targeted meeting a local guy and getting married to him. A dream which has come true," says Fay, not her real name.

"I am working now as a baby sitter and living together with my husband happily. I am also taking a French language course to improve my skills to find another, better job in the future," she says, adding, however, that she plans to return to Indonesia at the right time.

For Wulan, prostitution was not a great challenge as she had been involved in such activity earlier in Singapore for a couple of years before widening her horizons to Paris.

"At one time, I also worked in Taman Lawang (the area for transvestite prostitution) in Jakarta. So prostitution has been with me for a long time. I would say that many transvestites in Indonesia come from the low income group, so they have no choice but prostitution as they can't find other jobs in this 'normal' world."

Wulan, who now lives with a guy and works as a private nurse for an elderly woman, admitted that prostitution was easy work to earn money.

"I have to admit that at this moment I have stopped prostituting myself, but I don't know whether this is forever or not. To some extent I think this is generally about confusion. I am a man who wants to be a woman ... it's confused, isn't it? So many times I just can't make a firm decision. And I think most transvestites are just like that."

When asked about returning to Indonesia, Wulan and Yeyen shake their heads. They found living in Paris, even with the hardest challenges and most difficult times, to be far better than living their home country.

"In Indonesia, don't even think about working in other areas, transvestites belong only to beauty salons. Well I think this is about discrimination. Now I am here. I think I've got a better life," Wulan says, adding that hard times were over for her.

She shared one of her nightmares when still working on the streets in Paris when she was raped by some 10 men after one of them had taken her earlier to a remote area.

"They first thought that I was a woman. When they ripped my clothes off, they were surprised to find out that I am a transvestite and they got angry, but it did not stop them from raping me. I think that was part of their sex fantasies.

"And," she continues, "I was helped by a truck driver the next morning to go back to the center of Paris. But he was only willing to help me after I served him."

But the three admit that they can earn a lot of money working on the street.

"We charge between 20 and 30 euro for oral sex and up to 50 euros for anal sex. But we only serve in the car. Rates will be 100-150 euros if we go to hotels," says Yeyen.

Wulan adds that customers in Boi de Boulogne usually know they are transvestites.

"Sometimes I was also prostitute myself in other places in disguise as a woman. It's more challenging. I have to convince potential customers that I am the one they are looking for, woman, man or transvestite. There are tricks to serve them so they can be satisfied without realizing that I am not a real woman. But it could be a nightmare if they insisted on performing cunnilingus."

She adds that many times she gets male customers who want to be sodomized by a transvestite, and this was an opportunity to earn much more money.

"I charge three or four times more than my regular rate. They are customers with special requests and fantasies."

The three transvestites agree that they have earned money from prostituting themselves in Paris. But the money matters have also become sources of problems among them.

They say that, just like the other Indonesian transvestites, they came to Paris through the brokerage of a transvestite known as Lia, who was living in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta. They were required to pay between US$8,000 and $9,500 to go to Paris. It was Lia who arranged the tickets, visas, and passports, if needed, and an address for them to stay in Paris.

They say most of the Indonesian transvestites -- at the peak they totaled 20 in mid-2003 -- got six-month Schengen visas issued by the same Embassy, but not the French Embassy, in Jakarta during 2000-2003. There are 15 Schengen countries comprising Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

"Some failed to enter Europe and were deported on their arrival at certain airports. Some were deported later, including the one who was Lia's assistant in Paris," says Wulan, a native of Padang, West Sumatra but who grew up in Lampung.

She adds that the world of Indonesian transvestites is always unique.

"An Indonesian transvestite may have to come and become a prostitute in Paris by arranging everything on her own. But Lia would get mad and charge her later as she considers Paris as her own area. Nobody is allowed to enter Paris without her knowledge and everyone going to Paris must pay her and her assistant in Paris thousands of dollars."

According to Wulan, several of them did not want to pay, which later triggered open conflict until the local police noticed something wrong and targeted someone in Indonesia as their pimp.

Meanwhile, head of consular section of the Indonesian Embassy in Paris Andreas Sitepu says that Indonesian transvestites in the city was a phenomenon of the past.

"There's nothing special about that. But it's true that Interpol was involved in the case since someone living in Jakarta was accused of being a pimp for the transvestites here. Indonesian police officers have also come here and met with the transvestites," he says.

The writer can be contacted at innocent@uninet.net.id