She seems to be doing well for herself. Her radio show on sexuality, 'The Big Talk', is featured regularly on Egypt's Al Mehwar satellite television, and she has a website:
https://hebakotb.net/en/
This is the kind of stuff you'd expect for Indonesia, not the Arab World. Time to further derail this thread by making it about the Muslim world, not just the Arab World.
From the October 2009 edition of National Geographic:
Facing Down the FanaticsA more tolerant Islam is confronting extremism in the world's most populous Muslim country.
Perhaps the quintessential expression of Smiling Islam can be found in Jakarta, Indonesia's messy, manic capital, where extravagant malls and cinemas with names like Hypermart and Blitzmegaplex are under construction, and luxury high-rises abut teeming slums. Here, on a gravel side street, is the dusty, cluttered office of Ki Demit. Ki is the honorific bestowed upon Indonesian mystics. Ki Demit, whose name means Little Ghost, is 28 years old, baby-faced, and the son of another ki—Big Ghost—as well as the grandson and great-grandson of mystics. "I come from the most magical bloodline in Indonesia," he says.
In most places across the Middle East, such a statement would be heretical—anything paranormal not attributed to Allah is forbidden in Islam—but inscribed on a black batik in Ki Demit's waiting room is the menu of his charms. These include santet (sending a hex), pelet(gaining a lover), kekebalan (immunity from injury), and kejantanan (prowess in bed). One wall is covered with photos of celebrities—a soap opera star, a singer, a comedian—who have sought the help of Ki Demit or his father.
Ki Demit's clients sit cross-legged on the floor in front of him, a creaky ceiling fan above, the room crammed with candles and perfume bottles and prayer beads and antique knives. "I can read people's minds, and I can see the future," he says. "But I don't want to compete with God. I am only God's mediator." At the conclusion of many of his sessions, he'll give a client a handful of dried flowers he says are imbued with supernatural powers. Once the client takes a bath with the flowers, he says, his spell begins.
"I'm a good Muslim," insists Ki Demit. "Of course I pray five times a day. Of course I observe Ramadan. But long before Islam came to Indonesia, my ancestors were practicing these rituals. My father trained me as a ki, and when I have a son I will, of course, train him. I embrace Islam strongly, but I hold tightly to my powers. You cannot play with this power."
Across town from Ki Demit is the television studio where singer and talk-show host Dorce Gamalama recorded her daily show (before it ended this past May). She's the Oprah of Indonesia, widely known by her nickname, Bunda, which means "mother." She taped her show in front of a studio audience of mostly middle-aged women in head scarves—conservative Muslims seem to be her biggest fans, perhaps because Dorce herself, beneath the buzzy energy and megawatt smiles, is a devout Muslim. Near her home in Jakarta, she's built her own mosque.
Oh, and one more thing: Dorce was born a male. She's a transsexual. She's had her "condition," as she calls it, all her life and had a sex-change operation in her 20s. She's been married twice, both times to men. She owns 300 pairs of shoes and a thousand wigs. She sings, dances, and tells mildly risqué jokes. She's not above taking the occasional comedic pratfall.
Her talk show, which featured movie stars, musicians, and athletes, set the conversational tone of Indonesia—her otherness, in a way, allowed her to openly express what might ordinarily be left unsaid. She chatted about marital troubles, spoke candidly of sex. ("Women, if you want to make love, don't wait for your man to offer. Go ahead and ask for it.")
