“I grew up in Morocco in the 1990s. Boys and girls played together when we were alone. But if our families were around, I had to ‘behave’ – which meant ‘behave like a boy’, at the risk of being beaten.” This was life for Laila as a young trans woman. But with help from Trans […]
Category Archives: Passenger Campaigns
Luzira Prison Decarceration Effort
Africa Queer Network and Trans Rescue have been cooperating to help trans people trapped in Uganda’s prison system. Previously we have freed three from various prisons. Now we are concentrating on the notorious Luzira Upper Prison and have freed 8 trans women from there. AQNetwork in Uganda has been investigating rumors of “many” trans women […]
Maeen al-Dahbali – Now It Can Be Told
Maeen is a Yemeni cis man who became an anti-child-soldier activist during the earlier years of the Yemeni civil war, subsequently becoming the civil servant with responsibility for child services in the city of Taiz. This made him the enemy of all the warring factions due to his opposition to child recruitment, and he was […]
Rudy’s On Her Way, Nancy Isn’t. We Need Your Help!
Long-time followers of our social media presence will know that we’ve been supporting a pair of Egyptian trans women over the last year. Rudy and Nancy are pseudonyms for a pair who have been on the run from both their families, and the police crackdown on LGBT people. Last October we published some of their […]
Layla, From My Perspective
Jenny List Our passengers usually travel alone, faceless beings in the global air transit system. That anonymity is their shield, because they warrant only brief inspection among the crowds hurrying for their flights. As a blind passenger Layla wasn’t so lucky, as at each step her accessibility needs had to be met. Her itinerary touched […]
Blind Trans Woman Escapes Saudi Arabia
Today a young Saudi trans woman is safe in the asylum system of a European country. Layla Al Darwish was born with the misfortune not only of being trans in the most repressive country on Earth, but with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that has made her functionally blind. After her parents discovered she’d contacted us, […]
Women Attacked in Bundibugyo, Uganda
Bundibugyo, Uganda In the early morning hours of Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022, the house where five trans women lived together in Bundibugyo Uganda was raided by police. Three of the women managed to flee, but two others were beaten by police and local people, screaming “Are you men or women?” The two women were arrested […]
When Trans People Are Registered.
Passenger report of misuse of medical records
Trans Woman Assaulted in Kenya
May 25, Mombasa Rita, a trans woman in coastal Kenya, was assaulted on May 15 at her restaurant chef job, after the restaurant owner learned she was trans. He and another employee attacked her, probably giving her a concussion and skull fracture. The police came and arrested Rita, charged her with “impersonation” and “shaming” the […]
Rayan – Saudi Arabia
Last year Rayan’s situation seemed hopeless. As a ‘female’ in his home country of Saudi Arabia, he had little control over his life. His wealthy, powerful, and criminal father ruled the family with an iron fist. He’d been threatened with death both by his father and mother, been abused by family members, subjected to medical […]