CAIRO — Farida Ramadan, a transgender woman, overcame major hurdles to transition in conservative Egypt, but she is still fighting for her rights in a country where LGBTQ+ people face acute stigma.
Wearing a colorful headscarf, kohl eyeliner and crimson red lipstick, Ramadan, now in her fifties, told AFP that when she was growing up in Damietta, a city in northeastern Egypt, she “was not into boys’ things”.
As a teenager, she told some of her family about her gender dysphoria, or conflict between a person’s assigned gender and their identity.
“I was met with disdain and unimaginable mockery,” she said.
She left home in her twenties and in 2000, started the “lon…
Keep on reading: Transgender woman battles for ‘dignity’ in conservative Egypt