Persian Gulf States Seek To Bar Trans Workers

Remember the post I wrote in July asking where in the world I could travel on a US passport?   

Scratch the Persian Gulf States from that list if a proposed policy is approved to bar trans people from obtaining visas to work in the Persian Gulf States. 

The Gulf Cooperation Council according to the Saudi based Arab News is pondering a proposal by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health tightening genetic tests for immigrant workers in order to prevent transgender migrants from entering the GCC job market.

Tawfiq Khojah, director-general of the Executive Office at the GCC Health Council, said, “The health checklist for migrant workers now contains a mandatory examination to determine gender.”

These constrictions are necessary to 'preserve Islamic principles', he added and will be made in a meeting for the Central Committee for Foreign Workers’ at the Health Council to be held on November 11, Khojah told Arab News.

I don't doubt that part of what's motivating this Kuwaiti proposed policy is a reaction to the flood of trans sex workers entering the conservative leaning Gulf States combined with transphobic attitudes in that country leading to the persecution of Kuwaiti transpeople.

“Undergoing the test will become mandatory for an estimated 289 health centers across the GCC if the Health Council approves the proposal of tighter controls on gender tests for migrant workers. More than 2 million expatriate workers underwent the new gender tests in 2012,” Khojah said.

Youssef Mendkar, director of the Public Health Department at the Kuwait Ministry of Health, confirmed that the proposal aims to prevent transgender migrants from working in GCC countries. The tests determine the gender at birth.

The Kuwaiti backed anti-trans proposal before the GCC is a violation of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Yogyakarta Principles.

The transphobic proposal is getting denounced by LGBT human rights advocates such as London based Peter Tatchell and is only adding to the pressure FIFA is getting to pull the 2022 World Cup tournament from Qatar.

"Excluding expat workers because of their gender identity is immoral and doesn't make economic sense," said Tatchell to The Guardian. "People should be employed solely on the basis of their personal integrity and their ability to do the job. Trans people make perfectly good, reliable employees."

The new proposal would also violate FIFA's non-discrimination values and prompts questions about Qatar's hosting of the 2022 tournament, Tatchell said.

"The proposals to test and ban foreign trans employees from the Gulf Co-operation countries will include Qatar and will penalize World Cup construction and hospitality staff from overseas who are trans," he said.

"If these plans get the go-ahead, FIFA should cancel the 2022 World Cup contract on the grounds that Qatar has violated FIFA's non-discrimination values. It should find a new host city for the 2022 tournament. Discrimination against trans people is incompatible with FIFA's commitment to equality for all."

Indeed.  If the Kuwaitis insist on pushing this transphobic policy,, then FIFA needs to yank the 2022 World Cup from Qatar in order to stay true to their anti-discrimination policies.   Good luck on that happening. 

We'll find out what transpires at that November 11 meeting and see if transphobia prevails.. 

Israeli School Firing Award Winning Trans Teacher For Coming Out

The international trans community discovered thanks to Dana International's 1998 Eurovision win that transpeople exist in Israel.

Because of the subsequent media attention Dana, other Israeli trans women and the Paper Dolls documentary garnered, Israel on the surface has the reputation in the international trans community of being the most trans friendly spot in the Middle East compared to its regional neighbors. 

But disturbing news is coming out of that nation that is making people in the international trans community question the trans friendly perception.

This one also concerns me as a proud teacher's kid.

According to Gay Star News, an award winning mathematics teacher named Marina is facing dismissal after she openly talked to her students about being a trans woman.

Marina has been and outstanding teacher and mentor for the last three years and says that Israel’s Center for Educational Technology (CET) wants her fired for merely discussing her gender identity.

Marina is justifiably shocked that this is happening especailly since there have been no complaints filed against her.  She pointed out in a Channel 2 Israel interview: ‘I tried to explain that I am a human being just like they are and that it has no bearing on me being professional, and they need to accept people as they are’


She also pointed out ongoing work with pupils includes small talk, and she refuses to hide her identity, ‘coming out should encourage teachers to come out to students to teachers so that neither teachers nor students feel ashamed of themselves’.

Eran Dey of Israel’s LGBT community Facebook page, told Gay Star News: ‘I think transgender people are the least well treated out of the LGBT community in Israel. Employees make their life a living hell if they even manage to make it through a job interview, due to prejudice.


'I find it crucial for cases like Marina’s to go before court to ensure that future employers in Israel would treat transgender and genderqueer people with dignity, equality and respect’.

Yadin Sapir, chair of Ha’vanaa, an organization dedicated to fighting against homophobia and transphobia told Gay Star News: ‘It is particularly insulting to hear a claim as if she wasn’t ‘qualified’ to speak with her students; a claim that hints that the fact she’s a transgender woman is ‘embarrassing’ to CET and requires a ‘special qualification’ when it comes to being discussed with students.

‘This highlights the need not only to bring the institution to court but also to conduct diversity training to employers in Israel’.

It's Hell To Be Trans In Kuwait

While we think we have it tough being trans in the United States, there are some parts of the world where just trying to live our trans lives can lead to severe harassment, arrest or death.

Our transsisters in Kuwait since 2007 have been dealing with the deleterious fallout from an amendment to Article 198 of the Kuwaiti Penal Code that arbitrarily criminalizes 'imitating the opposite sex in that nation.  

It has led to a rise in transphobic discrimination against trans women and according to a Human Rights Watch January 2012 report and trans activists in that nation, they face daily persecution, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse both at the hands of the police and the Kuwaiti public.  This is despite the fact that GID is officially recognized by the Kuwaiti Health Ministry as a legitimate medical condition

Police were given the freedom to determine whether a person’s appearance constitutes “imitating the opposite sex” without any specific criteria being laid down for what exactly constitutes violating Article 198.

Human Right Watch documented cases in which trans individuals were being arrested even when they were wearing male clothes and later forced by police to dress in women's clothing in order to claim they arrested them in that attire. 

Other Human Rights Watch cases documented interviewed trans women stating police arresting them because they had a soft voice or smooth skin.

A trans activist who spoke to Gay Middle East said, 'The situation in Kuwait is horrible for us, just intolerable. There are at least 13 transgender women in jail right now.' .Sheikh Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, the Prime Minister of Kuwait, denied was happening when he was approached by international human rights activists.  

The trans prisoners the prime minister claims were arrested for other offenses were not allowed by Kuwaiti authorities to be interviewed by human rights activists to corroborate the veracity of his statement.

Kuwaiti media has been gleefully pushing transphobic coverage of the harassment, which doesn't help the situation.     

There have been calls to not only to repeal that portion of Article 198, but release the trans women who are in Kuwaiti jails and stop the persecution of trans women in that nation.  

I know we have our own problems in the United States, and I've documented them in this blog's electronic pages.  But that shouldn't stop us from being concerned about what is happening to our trans sister's human rights in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.   

Gaddafi Bab al-Aziziya Tripoli Compound Overrun

Seems it's even clearer that a decisive tipping point has been reached in the fight to topple the Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya after rebel forces made a lighting dash into Tripoli and seized control of most of the city with the exception of the Bab al-Aziziya military compound that was still under his control.

It was the symbolic nerve center of the regime and was surrounded, assaulted, and finally overrun by rebel troops.  Watching the reports on CNN and MSNBC and seeing the jubilant troopers firing their weapons in the air as more troopers and civilians stream into it to get a look around it and hunt for souvenirs of this historic day.   

In the meantime the eastern oil hub town of Ras Lanuf has fallen on the road to Gaddahi's hometown of Sirte.   Still no signs of Gaddafi or any of his family members, but the chase to capture them is on.   

Gaddafi's Goin' Down

The Arab Spring rolls on as the list of authoritarian rulers in the Middle East gets shorter.   Less than a week after we see pictures of Hosni Mubarak standing trial in Egypt and Bashir al-Assad channeling Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman as calls for him to step down and end his family's 40 year rule of Syria get louder, there was stunning news coming out of Libya.

Muammar Gaddafi has ruled Libya since he and a group of military officers led a September 1, 1969 coup d'etat that toppled King Idris I and set up an authoritarian regime.  After the people power led revolutions in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt toppled long time leaders of those countries, the Libyan people rose up in revolt starting on February 17.   A National Transitional Council was organized on February 26 to organize the anti-Gaddafi resistance and govern the areas under rebel control with France becoming the first nation to recognize it as the legitimate Libyan government on March 10.   That list of countries recognizing the Libyan Republic is now up to 32 nations.

On March 17 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 on a 10-0 vote with five abstentions that set up the legal basis for international military intervention in the Libyan civil war.  It established the no-fly zone, demanded an immediate cease fire, and to use all means necessary short of foreign military occupation to protect civilians. 

Two days later the NATO air attacks began supplemented with with Tomahawk cruise missile strikes from US naval ships to secure the no fly zone

After six months of inconclusive fighting, things have been breaking the rebels way on the battlefield.

The Libyan rebels while dealing with dissension in their ranks, have expanded control from Benghazi, the eastern sectors of the country and the Nifusa mountains, broke a siege of the western rebel held city of Misrata, and captured Zawiyah which contains a critical oil refinery.    

It's why the speedy dash the Libyan rebel forces conducted into Tripoli was such a surprise.  Quickly advancing 20 miles under cover of NATO airstrikes, they captured the base of the elite Khamis Brigade commanded by Gaddafi's son, surrounded the key Mitiga airbase and pushed into the capitol city meeting little resistance while doing so   They captured Martyr's Square and allegedly two of Gaddafi's sons in the process.

As to the whereabouts of Muammar Gaddafi, he's suspected to be holed up in his sprawling Bab al-Aziziya compound surrounded by loyalist troops.

Of course the National Transition Council wants him taken alive, and that might not be what Gaddafi wants to happen seeing that he's facing international indictments and a potential trial for crimes against humanity.


But it looks like the Libyan civil war has reached a decisive turning point, and i's going to be an interesting few days to see how the endgame plays out.   

Post Op Transpeople Denied Entry Into Egypt

One of the things that is a common problem for transpeople no matter where we reside on this planet is our identity documents.   Far too many national governments instead of making the process as drama free as possible, throw up roadblocks to doing so.

That inability to have identity documents that match our gender presentation can cause complications in our lives and open us up to embarrassment, discrimination or transphobic harassment.  

When we have to travel internationally, passports or ID's that don't match the current gender presentation can subject us to denial of entry into the country we wish to visit, harassment or worse by customs officials.

Transpinays and other Asian transwomen are reporting that when they travel to Hong Kong, they are being harassed by customs officials there


There was a recent example of what can happen according to an online article on the Al Masryalyoum website .

A post op Arab transwoman and a transman were both recently denied entry into Egypt recently.   They had arrived at the Cairo airport on a flight from Amman, Jordan and the Cairo airport officials noticed a 22 year old transwoman of 'outstanding beauty' disembarking from the arriving international flight.

When she presented her passport, it still had her old male birth name in it.  She told customs officials that she had undergone GRS six weeks before but hadn’t been able to modify her passport data.

On the same flight was a 19-year-old transman holding a passport with his old female birth name and because of the same problem.   He'd undergone surgery and also wasn’t able to update his passport in time for his trip.

Both passengers stories checked out, but they were denied entry into Egypt and sent back to Jordan

This situation is one reason why the US State Department made the decision they did last summer to allow transpeople to do gender marker changes on US passports without requiring surgical intervention.