The Beast Stalking Tuantu Women

When the plane she’s boarding has just landed in the Tuantu International Airport, Nisa has

just finished reading The Silent Storm, a poetry collection penned by Lumar Thona Zbethern,

the President of Tuantu. She’s observing the women around her, who immediately wrapped a

long cloth around their bodies to cover them in their entirety, their movements very swift and

vigilant. A young man helps take her baggage from the airplane cabin. “Ruke,” Nisa nods her

head while saying Thank You in Tuantu language.

“Not the best author from this country,” says the young man quietly, when he gazes briefly at

the book Nisa’s holding in her hand. The man is in his 30s, wearing eyeglasses, with his long

hair tied in a bun.

His features are typical Tuantu: slanted eyes, thick eyebrows, sharp nose and reddish skin.

“What do you think, Miss?” His tone of voice sounds friendly.

“Motivational, and highly nationalistic,” Nisa responds.

“What can we do, the only literary work from this country which is available in English is his

work.”

“Also, he’s the only one who’s allowed to write his name on the cover,” Nisa laughs quietly.

The man extends his hand, introducing himself. “Toma,” he says. Nisa welcomes the

handshake while also saying her name. The two of them are standing in the aisle, waiting for

permission to get out of the airplane. Toma is standing so close in front of her that Nisa can

sniff the smell of his perfume. Hermes, probably?

“There’s never been a better time to travel to our country than this,” Toma says.
“I’m on a business trip,” Nisa replies in a low voice.

“Even worse,” Toma sounds bitter. “Pardon me, but you’re accompanied by a male

companion, aren’t you? Recently, women’s mobility has become more restricted…”

“Yes, I know, within the last one month alone, there have been at least six cases of assault,

resulting in severe injuries in two victims and the rest are suffering from mild ones…”

“And still, you’re coming here? You are indeed a very brave person.”

“Or, plain stupid,” Nisa tries to crack a joke.

“Just beware,” Toma whispers before they go their separate ways.

That morning it started drizzling, confirming the weather forecast. According to the Lovely

Planet travel guide, the spring is the best season to visit Tuantu, although it also gets the

wettest during the month of April. Nisa tidies up her pasmina. Standing below huge letters

saying Welcome to Tuantu, she’s waiting for her car driver to come pick her up. A number of

taxi drivers greet her, offering their service. Nisa shakes her head politely. Then she fixes her

gaze at an announcement board for tourists featuring a travel safety guide for women.

She remembers how her chief editor Mardiyah once doubted Nisa’s decision to take a

reporting assignment to Tuantu.

“Are you sure you want to go there? You’ll have a lot of male colleagues who’ll be willing to

replace you if you’re not sure.”

Nisa was shaking her head. “Inshaallah, I’m ready, mbak. I have written about Tuantu

several times, yet I’ve never actually set my feet there. Don’t you think it’s strange?”

“Yes and no. A lot of people have written about Planet Mars and yet haven’t been able to go

there.”
“But Tuantu isn’t Mars, and it’s only a six-hour flight from here.”

Her supervisor shrugged, then signed an overseas assignment letter for Annisa. “Okay, good

luck with this task then. Return safe, okay.”

Nisa only responded with a snicker.

The country, with a population of approximately 6 million people, is one of the 20 countries

with the most rapid economic growth globally, because it is one of the biggest Earth gas

producers in the world. With the equally marvelous panoramas of its beaches and mountains,

Tuantu could have been a favorite tourist destination among travelers. Instead, it is listed

among ‘the most rarely visited countries.’

Since 20 years ago, Tuantu has frequently been attacked by savage animals. The Beast, or

simply called B by the Tuantu people, is an animal which they’d previously thought was

nothing more but an urban legend, which later has turned out to truly exist after it has started

to make public appearances. Possibly being pushed into a tight corner by an infrastructure

development which has destroyed so many forests, the Beast has lost its habitat. An epidemic

which infected their females, resulting in either sterility or death, has further exacerbated the

situation. Their whole species is now facing the threat of extinction.

That’s the theory proposed by scientists explaining why B hunts for and attacks female

humans in Tuantu. The attacks, according to that theory, are driven by their sexual instincts,

which penetrate the women’s genitals to plant their seeds in order to preserve their lineage.

Several eyewitnesses report having seen B attacking men, but such cases are relatively rare.

It’s rare to find a person who has really seen what B truly looks like. Featured images of B in

various academic books, documentary programs and other media contents are nothing more

but rough sketches drawn based on the investigation of scientists, which have also been

gathered through victims’ testimonies.

And then there are the blurry photographs captured by several professional photographers

who have joined the B-Hunter Photographers Club. Despite their imperfections, these photos

are useful in capturing B’s rough silhouettes to guide scientists in their follow-up studies.

His head makes him look like a wolf, with his snout and sharp, pointy ears, yet he has brown

furs, no different from grizzly bears. He has an extremely sharp vision. His most terrifying

feature of all, however, is the glimpse of intelligence in his eyes, as reported by several

victims. When he’s staring at you, it’s as if he’s also reading you at the same time.

B also can move and fly at an extreme velocity, with its 2-meter-long wings, thereby he can

pounce on his victim when the victim least expects it, shocking the victim tremendously.

According to data, he is more likely to come out and hunt his prey at night although it’s also

possible that he’s already stalked his victims since daytime, and he might even have already

stalked his victims for a few days before eventually launching an attack. A Tuantu biologist

whose statements often get quoted by the media said, B stalks his victims while he’s flying

high up in the air and can recognize the smell of a woman from the surface of her skin.

“Women have a different skin texture than men. If women cover their whole bodies with long

clothes, that will make it very difficult for B to hunt for his prey.”

The threat posed on women by B’s presence has prompted the government to issue various

policies governing the way women dress while restricting their mobility all at the same time.

Women must cover their entire bodies and faces so B won’t be able to recognize the physical

shape of their bodies. When women leave home, especially at night, they must be

accompanied by a male family member or relative. Finally, women must obtain a special

permit in order to be able to leave home after 9p.m.

This strict restriction on women’s movements has been met with opposition by the members

of progressive activist and scientist circles in Tuantu. Because certain case studies have
shown that in actuality, there’s no clear pattern to B’s attacks. In certain areas, women who

have already covered their entire bodies still fall victim to the attacks. These incidents, on the

other hand, has been used as ammunition by other scientists who argue that B recognizes a

woman through the scent of pheromone that she secretes during her fertile period and they

are being guided by this aroma. Therefore, simply covering their bodies isn’t enough,

women’s movements in public spaces also have to be restricted.

The debate on how to best protect women from B’s attacks seems to be an endless one.

Government policies on how women should dress and be restricted from public activities are

non-negotiable. The authorities do not hesitate to throw citizens with dissenting opinions to

jail for being defiant.

So in the last two decades, the way the Tuantu women dress – whether they cover up their

entire bodies, covering just half of their bodies or wearing revealing clothes – has become a

political statement. Later, the Tuantu women are also categorized based on how they dress. If

a woman wears clothes which cover up their entire bodies, she will be considered submissive,

committed and capable of protecting herself. If a Tuantu woman wears revealing clothes,

then she must be a rebel, incapable of taking care of herself and stubborn.

Tuantu is an important country for Indonesia because of at least two factors. First, it is one of

Indonesia’s most important trade partners. Tuantu exports its rugs, textiles and minerals to

Indonesia, while importing wood, vegetables, soap operas and horror films from Indonesia.

Second, just like Indonesia, more than 85 percent of Tuantu citizens are Muslims, so the

traditions, policies and regulations in Tuantu are often used as a point of reference for

Indonesia. This has turned Tuantu into a very interesting case study for Indonesian journalists

who works on human rights and political issues on a global level.

 ***

“Is this your first time visiting Tuantu, Miss?” greets the driver who picks Nisa up.

The driver asked her to call him Ludba. He has glowing brown skin, with a thick beard

covering his prominent jawline. He has a straight, tall body, but his feet are limp from an

accident he got when he was young. Ludba was a soldier or a policeman or something like

that, but due to an injury he had while on duty, he now has to make a living as a driver and a

bodyguard, which can be hired at any time. Ludba is also the international journalists’

favorite driver.

“Yes, just for four days. The permit for women to visit Tuantu has been shortened to only

four days per visit. I have been granted multiple entries for five years, though. They say it’s

all for security reasons. Have situations in Tuantu been more difficult for women?”

“True, my wife has also found it more difficult to go places. Our two sons have chosen to

work abroad, so nobody accompanies their mother on her travels when I’m working.”

“Such a shame.”

The two of them fall silent. Nisa looks outside the window, observing the suburban landscape

panorama, lined with the Eltuantu mountains and the vast desert. She rolls her window down;

she wants to breathe in the Tuantu air. Their car is speeding at high velocity in the intercity

toll road, on the way to Diktata, Tuantu’s capital located in the valley.

As they start to enter the city area, Nisa finds herself perplexed by the way it’s designed;

looking at the monuments, statues as well as the architecture of the buildings. All the

buildings and monuments are white, giving off a clean and modern impression. Yet they all

feature some disharmony; it looks like they’re trying to provide too much accent, no different

from putting a piece of cherry on top of an ice cream.

There is a bright orange dome on top of a government office building with white marbles, a

monument commemorating a national hero made of white stone but wearing a golden belt, a

university campus building which is shaped like an egg.

Round, white, but delineated by bright red lines which make it look like a ribboned egg. Did

the architect gain inspiration from Easter eggs?

Everything looks futuristic, artificial here, tinged with childish fantasies. The deeper she gets

into town, Annisa starts to see more and more women who cover themselves with long fabric.

“What a… magical city!” quips Annisa, still transfixed.

Ludba gazes at her from the front rear view mirror. “Yes, and our women are also beautiful.

Unfortunately, we can no longer see their pretty faces now.”

“Ludba, do you think by covering themselves tightly like that, it will put a stop to B’s attacks

once and for all?”

Ludba shakes his head. His face looks sad. “The attacks still happen. Just a month ago, it

happened to my neighbor. Luckily she suffered from mild injuries only, but she was

hospitalized for two days to recover from the shock.”

Annisa fell silent. Ludba is slowing the car down as they are entering a pretty crowded city

area.

“Ludba, in your opinion, is B truly an invincible creature?”

“Yes, the Tuantu people have developed this strong belief about B’s supernatural powers, so

those who dare to challenge him will face great repercussions, from disasters, even death.”
Ludba then starts to tell a story about a policeman who had this chutzpah to try to catch that

animal. He almost succeeded in his mission; he had even severed a part of B’s wings. This

achievement became the main headline across all media outlets in Tuantu for a while.

“Oh yes, I watched some news about that a while ago!”

Nisa remembers, she once saw a video reporting some firsthand accounts from one of the

survivors of B’s attacks; she was amazed at the journalists who had worked hard to gather the

news story. Not to investigate B’s attacks through a scientific lens, but to emphasize on the

emotional, dramatic and heroic aspects of those incidents. They have covered various points

of view of the incident in order to excite viewers with the B issue.

The fact that the attack survivor rescued by the police happened to be single and pretty

simply turned the whole story into a sensation. The rescuer policeman was then hailed by the

media as a brave hero; while journalists kept churning out stories about how the site of battle

between the policeman and B was haunted by ghosts – nothing but sensational stories.

After she had seen the video, Nisa started to research other news items reporting the same

incident. But she almost couldn’t find any Tuantu national media outlets which dissected the

savage animal phenomenon in a scientific, serious tone. Why did the police reveal only very

little about their investigation findings to the public? Why did they never reveal findings from

the studies about the severed wing?

A landmark series of photographs of B were taken by a criminal reporter who was assigned to

keep an eye on the attacks and thus was installed to the police beat. These photographs were

taken at night and quite blurry, and he was the only journalist who succeeded to take photos

of B in various angles.

Unfortunately, a year hadn’t passed yet after that incident and reports were circulating that

the police who cut B’s wings in half was wounded on assignment, and he suffered from
serious injuries, forcing him to be off duty for a while. Meanwhile, a few months later, the

photographer who took these landmark pictures got into a traffic accident. He was still alive

when they took him to the hospital, but he later died en route.

It was not clear how the rumor started, but stories about how these people went through these

misfortunes because they’d been cursed by B started to spread. In the beginning, these stories

appeared in local media outlets, before they started to become the talk of the town. These

stories simply reinforced the existing popular myth that whoever dared to stand up to B

would ultimately get bad karma. Since he had been off duty, it became harder for journalists

to meet the policeman who cut the beast’s wing and he had increasingly preferred not to

reveal his identity, perhaps to protect himself.

“Yes, yes true. It seems you’ve conducted quite a research about Tuantu, Miss,” Ludba

praises her depth of knowledge about the subject.

“Yes, and I will maximize my time here, trying to talk to as many sources I can find, digging

as many stories out as possible. And you will accompany me.”

Ludba’s nodding his head.

Annisa has four days to immerse herself among the people of Tuantu.

***

During the four days she’s spending in Tuantu, Annisa is talking to her sources, Tuantu men

and women, starting from the victims, biologists, sociologists, legal experts, historians to

government officials. She’s gathering many pieces of the puzzle, told from various points of

view. She’s become more familiar with the situation in Tuantu, along with all its oddities and

complexities.
Various scientists speculate that they can overcome the B issue with advancements in

bioengineering, which can possibly cure the ailments of the female. But they need big

funding to conduct this research, along with support from foreign experts. At the same time,

it’s difficult for foreign citizens to stay in Tuantu due to the country’s strict foreign residence

permit.

It wasn’t long before government restrictions on women’s mobility at night got negated by

attacks during the day. Something which in the beginning came as a shock. A female victim

fell to the curb after B bit her thigh, in broad daylight. Eyewitnesses mentioned a black

shadow which moved to attack the woman in her thigh until she fell to the curb before he

swiftly escaped. The woman’s thigh started bleeding and she was immediately rushed to the

hospital. She got seriously wounded although it didn’t become fatal and life-threatening. One

could only imagine the victim’s tremendous shock upon being attacked out of the blue.

“It felt as if I was burned alive. It stung me, hot, painful. For a moment I had no idea what

happened to me until I saw my feet were already drenched in blood. And his eyes, he looked

at me, he looked… satisfied. I immediately felt like passing out,” there goes the testimony of

one of the victims that Nisa met.

After that incident, ultimately even during the day women have to cover themselves up from

head to toe for public activities. From time to time, the Tuantu government keeps adding new

regulations under the pretext of protecting their women. Tuantu women are becoming more

restricted in their public time and space. By now, they have been required to cover their entire

bodies and faces with a cloth, because they’re constantly haunted by anxiety that the B will

see them and smell the aroma of their skin.

All the prohibitions and restrictions only inspired protests from the Tuantu activists circle.

They criticize the government which doesn’t take serious actions to respond to the B
problem. Rumors that the big security budget dedicated to mitigate the B problem had been

embezzled only makes people angrier. The women’s rights activists are starting to stage more

protests to call out the government, which end up in their imprisonment. Women who are

reckless enough to break the regulations, by for example, revealing their skin when they get

out of the house, are subject to various punishments, from fines to imprisonment. The Tuantu

women often have to deal with double threats – B’s attacks and punishments by the

government.

“Now, we have no life in Tuantu anymore. All under the pretext of protecting us. But is it so?

Now, we no longer have autonomy over our bodies,” says Anne Tianinia, a women’s right

activist whom Nisa met in prison.

Four days feel so condense, and short. And Nisa already has to leave, taking with her plenty

of stories from various sources. On her way to the Tuantu International Airport, Nisa is

expressing her concerns.

“Ludba, is it true that B truly cannot be defeated?”

“In my opinion, we can…”

“But?”

“Besides fearing terrible repercussions, many believe that killing B means destroying the

environment, fighting against God’s creature.”

“But hasn’t B become extremely dangerous?”

“True.”

“Ludba, there’s one thing which I really can’t understand. Using common sense, if a savage

animal is on the loose, they are the ones whom you suppose to shackle. Not the humans!”
Ludba fell silent. They spend the rest of the trip in silence.

“Miss,” said Ludba before Nisa gets out of the car.

“You’re right, that ought to be how the government handles the situation. But policing and

restricting women have always been easier than working hard to overcome the real issue.”

****