Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Sexual + Gender Minorities
Transgender Egyptians face a difficult life in a society with few rights for its LGBT members
  • While homosexuality is universally condemned in Egypt, the transgender community has seen a glimmer of recognition through the government’s uneven acceptance of gender reassignment surgery for those diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” and approved by imams.
  • Even with that possibility, transgender individuals are subject to arrest, police and community violence, and employment exclusion, driving many into sex work to make a living.
  • Since the military coup in 2013, the trans community has faced deteriorating security as the government has enforced conservative, gender-rigid Islamic values in the citizenry.

“When I was five I knew I was different. … By 15, I was depressed. I thought I was a deviant according to Islam, that I was someone unacceptable to society.”

More on this story at GlobalPost.

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)