This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.
   License: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/
   international.
   --------------------------------------------------------------


‘I’m a Yemeni trans man and my family want to kill me’
By:   []
Date: None

The years of abuse that Yahyia Al-Zindani suffered for being a trans man came to a boiling point on one traumatic night in August 2019. As he hid in his locked bedroom, he said his father screamed threats to murder him through the door. In fear of his life, that night he fled his homeland of Yemen.

Despite escaping his family, the shadow of threat still weighs heavily upon him. He has to live in hiding from fear of a so-called ‘honour’ killing. He is only 23 but feels like he has gone through “a million lifetimes of torture”.

And he has the additional pain of missing the family he still loves. He told openDemocracy: “I miss Yemen. I miss home and I miss my family so bad, even though they hate me and they would kill me if I go back. But I still love them and it hurts to miss them while they are hating me this bad. I miss my friends and I miss being not afraid of anything, knowing that my family has my back. But now I have no one.”

Wednesday is international transgender day of visibility, which comes amidst a backlash against trans rights around the world. And to mark it, openDemocracy is looking at the people facing the brunt of that backlash – including in Yemen, where both sides of the civil war are violently imposing Western gender norms brought to the country by the British empire only a few generations ago.

Al-Zindani’s peace of mind, right to freedom and educational hopes have been destroyed by the transphobia he has suffered. With the help of human rights advocates and friends, he was able to get the necessary documents, ID and passport to finally leave Yemen for another country in the Middle East. “The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed my plans for relocating out of the Middle East,” he said.

“The threats from my family have not stopped, I fear moving around areas inhabited by the Yemeni diaspora. My movement is still restricted, I am still alone. I am still in an Arab country where the NGOs I reach out to for help regarding shelter or education or jobs don't accept me for my gender identity. I still face discrimination for existing the way I do.”

A lifetime of torture

“I have only been in this world for 23 years, yet it seems like a million lifetimes of torture,” said Al-Zindani.

“In 2015, when the war broke out in Yemen, my family and I fled to Somaliland, where I was subjected to physical abuse and torture. I was jailed against my will in a mental institution, while antipsychotics and female hormones were given to me by force.

“I was labelled a schizophrenic, bipolar, paranoid and an aggressive person. All my medical reports were switched to suit my family’s claims of insanity and to label me as incompetent and unable to make my own decisions. I was put under their forced guardianship.”

He showed openDemocracy a photograph of numerous drugs, including antipsychotics, which he said he was forced to take over two years. He said he was also made to take Progynova – used in hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopausal women because it contains oestrogen – and that he was forcibly injected with antipsychotics usually used to sedate prisoners.

openDemocracy showed his list of medications to two UK-based doctors, who both corroborated his claims about what these medications do.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/im-a-yemeni-trans-man-and-my-family-want-to-kill-me/