Transgender activist Nisha Ayub has questioned why religious authorities are once again targeting the transgender community.
In a public statement yesterday, she urged Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri, who is in charge of religious affairs, to explain what he meant by saying the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) now had “full license” to act against the community.
“Such statements (from the minister) can cause more harm and fear towards the transgender (community) and will create an unsafe environment for the community,” she said on her Facebook page.
Nisha questioned why the government was threatening to trample on people’s rights to identify and express themselves as transgender when they posed no harm to the country or others.
“So now we are not allowed to even walk in public being who we are? Are we now being denied our rights as human beings and citizens of Malaysia?
“What happened to our rights based on the Federal Constitution of Malaysia? Rights to personal liberty, equality, expression, movement, religion and so on? Why target us the minorities? Why?” she asked.
This was especially when many from her community were trying their best to recover economically from the Covid-19 pandemic, she added.
Earlier yesterday, Zulkifli announced on Facebook that he was empowering Jawi to arrest transgender persons and “educate” them so that they “return to the right path”.
This comes amidst the online furore over revealing photographs cosmetics entrepreneur Nur Sajat posted of herself on her personal Instagram account.
This led calls for the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government to take action on the transgender businessperson.
Back in 2018, then religious affairs minister Mujahid Yusof Rawa had called upon the public to stop discriminating against transgender people to prevent members of the community from resorting to sex work.
Following a meeting with Nisha, he had also urged transgender people to be given respect and equal access to health, education and houses of worship. - Mkini
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