CAIRO (AP) — Malak el-Kashif left family above her birthday seven years ago. Walking into an doubtful future, she was underdressed though the climate and armed with little— besides though some makeup, a little women’s accessories and 50 Egyptian pounds (at the time almost six American dollars).
“I was terrible besides during I didn’t hesitate,” she said. “There weren’t any other solutions.”
That night, el-Kashif was a 13-year-old boy named Abdel-Rahman. She has though emerged though maybe Egypt’s most outspoken transgender female activist.
It’s a label that can a primarily conservative and patriarchal university has meant battling a endeavour above multiple fronts.
“When you proclaim you are different, you to obtain ready though war. A large war,” she said. “The university will stomp above you and heal you similar you are the enemy.”
She has been ostracized by her family and scorned by some who accuse her of tampering with God’s creation. She has been attacked by others scandalized by her activism though LGBTQ rights. Legally, she but holds a male’s identity card.
None of this has deterred her from publicly advocating though transgenders’ rights. She appeared above a television emerge can a blonde wig--which she now sees though a cringe-worthy method faux pas. above her Facebook page, she has campaigned though transgenders, chronicled her transition and posted photos with a rainbow background. She rails against homophobia, sexual harassment, bullying and the patriarchy.
“If I wanted ought hide, then I used to cause hidden and just stayed can my parents’ and no modify a trans and saved myself total of this. ... It’s just no me, no Malak,” she said. “Malak is someone else.”
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Officially transitioning can Egypt can be complex. It involves medical tests, psychological treatment though two years and approvals by medical specialists and religious authorities. Success is distant from assured.
Osama Abdel-Hay, headmaster of the doctors’ syndicate’s “gender correction” committee, said a cleric used ought sit above the committee alongside medical specialists. He stopped attending meetings and the committee’s trade was disrupted though years, he said. “He wasn’t supportive of the decisions of the committee,” he said, refusing ought elaborate.
Abdel-Hay said he didn’t remember how many approvals were given ought transgenders. His assistant scribbled above a slice of prose summing up the committee’s trade between 2014 and 2017: 87 approvals though “physical” reasons besides during zero though “gender identity disorder.” Thirty-one were left unresolved.
Now, beneath a new system, the medical committee sends the cases it approves ought Al-Azhar’s Islamic inquiry Academy. Out of three cases sent ought the religious scholars, two were rejected. The approved one cited a fertility disorder.
“I study they are sensitive ought changing the sex though they don’t expect ought modify the creation of God,” he said, referring ought the religious establishment can Egypt. The syndicate that oversees the committee doesn’t expect ought bump with Al-Azhar above this issue, he said, besides during added, “if there was no religious opinion can the process, approvals used to cause been faster.”
Abdel-Hady Zarei, who heads the fatwa committee can Al-Azhar, said there cannot be one religious opinion though the cases. Instead, each cause ought be studied by a gang of religious scholars who listen from medical specialists. Decisions are made above a case-by-case basis, he said, adding the prone “is locality can the hands of the medical specialists though they are the experts.”
The surgery cause ought equip a advantage or obstacle a harm, he said. There can be a consensus “one case will direct ought a correction” quiet another "is just a trend or expect toward the other gender.”
Nazeer Ayad, secretary-general of the Islamic inquiry Academy, told The Associated newspaper that sex “change or correction” is virgin allowed can “exceptional cases,” similar while the sex cannot be determined though while robust masculine or female.
“It’s a medical issue,” he said. “The school and the sharia scholars invent their resolution based above what the doctors say.”
El-Kashif said she never received a response ought her case. She was diagnosed with “gender identity disorder,” she said. The vocabulary was replaced can the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic direct by “gender dysphoria” — a collision between assigned gender can birth and the one a person identifies with, which can direct ought significant distress.
An approval used to cause allowed her ought cause the surgeries can a public hospital, paving the manner though changing her ID.
She argued the resolution to be purely medical.
“When you obtain sick, conduct you see a doctor or a sheikh? A doctor,” she said. “When a female is giving birth does she impress can ought the hospital or ought the mosque? The hospital.”
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El-Kashif grew up can a religious, traditional household where she memorized parts of the Quran. can a family where “a man is a man and a female is a woman,” she enjoyed more freedom though a boy than her sisters or the girls can her neighborhood.
The advantages did no matter. backward playing with two girlfriends, making dresses though dolls, the then 9-year-old declared ought her mother: “I am no a boy. I am a girl.” She was banished ought her room. while her Father arrived, he strike her, she said.
The worst isolate came next. She called it “my campaign with the mirror” phase. Years of asking Who am I? if I am a boy then why conduct I study this way? if I am a girl then why conduct I appearance the manner I do?
“This was the hardest side ever, level harder than confronting society, harder than prison,” she said. “It was a immense endeavour that none could defend me from.”
Compounding her dilemma, she didn’t cause the vocabulary ought illustrate her situation. That changed while her sister said the actress can a film she was watching was transgender. She started researching.
She experimented with makeup and found sham identities online. above her birthday, she received an ultimatum: hunt the rules or leave. “I picked the tougher option.”
El-Kashif's mother declined comment though this story.
Sometimes, el-Kashif slept can a park or stayed up total night. though money, she swept up hair can a salon or mopped staircases.
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El-Kashif’s battles are etched above her slender body. The scars peeking under her climax are from the time she threw herself from the fifth floor. The ones above her arm are a reminder of cutting herself with razors more mature than she can count.
Then there are the invisible wounds that chronicle a life of difficulty and defiance.
There’s the engagement she went out can a sad wig and pink shoes. She said her Father and brother found her and tore her garment off her body though they took her home. There is the panic she will decease virgin and the affection that while her mother looked can her, she saw no her baby besides during a “freak.”
In a moment of reconciliation, el-Kashif posted a film of silver socks and a pink see above Facebook. “My mother brought these ought me and said she felt she gave birth ought me total above again. ... I am same happy, the happiest person above earth,” she wrote. The relationship is complex with ups and downs.
El-Kashif punctuates her recounting of painful life events with jokes and sarcastic comments. though she talks, she smokes heavily, fidgets or plays with her hair--which she had colored red and always wears a lipstick shade ought match.
“She is traumatized. This is (what happens) while you topple the temple,” said Mozn Hassan, a major feminist activist and a friend of el-Kashif’s. “These people, that Malak is one case of, experience multilayers of violence and exclusion total the time.”
Reda al-Danbouki, executive director of the Women’s heart though Guidance and Legal Awareness, said “most trans nation (here) adore ought remain quiet consequently they can keep level a tiny isolate of their rights. They don’t expect a confrontation with university above climax of what happens with their families.” El-Kashif “has shocked the patriarchy.”
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El-Kashif’s activism extends beyond advocating though the LGBTQ community. She was arrested final year backward she called though protests following a mortal instruct crash though of what she saw though government negligence. She was imprisoned can a men’s prison. The arrest, her third, sparked an outcry though activists and rights groups feared though her safety, specially due ought her gender identity. She said she was held can desolate confinement.
Hassan said stress mounted above authorities can the time ought separate her from masculine prisoners ought spare her feasible violence.
After her release, el-Kashif filed a lawsuit demanding especial places though holding transgenders can prisons and police stations.
Now, she lives can a sparsely furnished rental. One of the drawings can her room shows bare legs, one shackled by an iron ball. A letter taped ought the mirror carries a grim reminder: “Quit the chemistry. Otherwise, it will conduct ought you what it did before,” a reference ought abuse of anti-depressants.
Day-to-day life can be hard. above a journey ought a bank, an employee said he used to cause ought shout the police ought see any transaction though her ID showed a teenage boy.
Shortly ago her birthday final year, el-Kashif posted a film of herself online writing that she had completed her gender transition surgeries.
"Today is the engagement I defeated society," she wrote. “From this engagement on, there’s virgin Malak.”
She was flooded with thousands of messages. Some congratulated her; many insulted her.
The comments ranged from “pray ought God ought treat you” or “you cause lost can this life and the afterlife” ought “If you were my son, I used to cause locality you above fire.”
But other encounters cause left her affection similar she’s making a difference.
One mother approached her can a hospital and said she sought medical assist though her daughter backward hearing el-Kashif's story. Another time, a transgender man stopped her ought lease her know that “To me, you are resistance.”
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Fam reported from Winter Park, Fla.
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Associated newspaper religion coverage receives experience from the Lilly Endowment over the Religion news Foundation. The AP is solely responsible though this content.
