In a bizarre news from Indonesia, a COVID-19 positive man disguised himself as his own wife to board flight and evade the COVID-19 infused restrictions on travelling. While one must caution against such actions, it’s difficult not to respect the sheer chutzpah of the niqab-wearing-passport holding man disguised as woman.
Details
From Hollywood’s ‘She’s the Man’ where a woman disguises herself as a man to play in a men’s football team, to Bollywood’s ‘Dil Boley Hadippa’, where a woman disguised herself as a man to play in Indian Cricket team, the stories of people disguising themselves as other genders are not unheard of. But what happens when a man disguises himself as a woman – only to put several people at risk of catching an infectious disease – to take a flight.
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How the man disguised himself?
Something similar to that happened in Indonesia. A man – only identified as DW – wore a complete ‘niqab’ (face veil), to board a flight. While nothing about this may sound strange, the true strangeness comes from the fact that the man was pretending to be his own wife.
Carrying her wife’s passport, the COVID-19 positive man was also carrying his wife’s negative test results to board safely in the flight and evade the coronavirus restrictions. The Citilink flight was flying from Jakarta to Ternate in North Maluku province earlier last Sunday. Operated by Garuda airlines, Citilink is a low-cost flight-choice for a lot of Indonesians.
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Huge Mistake by Man Led to Arrest
The man would’ve safely evaded all prosecution he was to face had it not been for his surprisingly foolish action during the flight. Somehow, the burden of disguising himself as his own wife became too much to bear. After making sure that he fooled the airport authorities at the Jakarta airport, the man made a cringe-inducing error midflight. He entered the lavatory and came out as a man, exiting from his disguise.
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Stewardess’ Observations Did the Trick
The almost-magical transformation was caught by the airline stewardess. The stewardess – knowing fully well that she was not in the magical world of Harry Potter – alerted the airline authorities. While the man did reach the destination he wanted to, he was welcomed by the authorities waiting for him in the Ternate.
“He bought the plane ticket with his wife’s name and brought an identity card, a negative PCR test result and a vaccination card with his wife’s name,”
-police said.
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Man will self-isolate first, face proceedings later
According to CNN, the Ternate COVID-19 Task Force made the man take the COVID-19 test. After the test returned positive, the task force took the man to his Ternate city house where he will be spending his next two weeks in isolation. He will then face the proceedings against him for this act.
How is the COVID-19 Situation in Indonesia?
Attempts to evade restrictions using elaborate disguises is thankfully rare, but something that still has been reported from time to time. The strange attempt to evade authorities comes from Indonesia where the country is still reporting daily fresh cases. The country has reported 30.3 lakh COVID-19 cases and as many as 79,032 casualties have been reported. On July 22, Indonesia reported 49,509 fresh cases.
