World News for Students of English

09-12-2022 15:00

14 years ago, Shinta Ratri founded a boarding school in Yogykarta, Indonesia. As a transgender woman, she wanted to create a place where other transgender women would feel safe.

Homosexuality is illegal in 69 countries, and many of these countries are very religious. Families don’t want to be with homosexual and transgender people because to them, these people are not religious enough. Homosexual and transgender people may get life in prison or public stoning or hanging.

Over 60 women are at the school, and Ratri probably saved their lives. She says that she will continue her work to protect transgender women. For some of the women, they struggle to understand their religion and their identity at the same time.

Difficult words: boarding school (a school where students live and study), public stoning (a punishment when a group of people throw stones at someone to kill them), identity (to know who or what someone or something is).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.