Gulf countries consider medical checks to bar transgender expats

Kuwait proposal aimed at preventing transgender migrant workers from entering six-member Gulf Co-operation Council countries criticised as 'immoral'

Friday 11 October 2013 18.30 BST 35 comments


Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: 'Excluding expat workers because of their gender identity is immoral and doesn't make economic sense.' Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian
Saeed Kamali Dehghan

The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) will next month consider a proposal from Kuwait to introduce medical checks to prevent transgender people from entering the six-member Arab countries as migrant workers.

The Saudi-based Arab News reported this week that authorities in Kuwait's ministry of health have proposed "genetic tests" aimed at detecting transsexuals who wish to enter and work in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, where the 2022 football World Cup is scheduled to be held.

Medical screening designed to determine the sex of migrant workers has already been in place for some time in some Arab countries but the new proposal specifically targets members of the transgender community.

"Undergoing the test will become mandatory for an estimated 289 health centres across the GCC if the health council approves the proposal of tighter controls on gender tests for migrant workers," Tawfiq Khojah, a GCC health official, told the English-language newspaper. In 2012, Khojah said, more than 2 million expatriates underwent the gender tests.

It is not clear how doctors will determine the gender identity of migrants and whether the new tests will include physical checks. Arab News said the medical history of the workers would be used in determining their gender.

The London-based human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, said the Kuwaiti proposal was unjust and discriminatory towards transgender people.

"Excluding expat workers because of their gender identity is immoral and doesn't make economic sense," he told 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 penalise 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."

Earlier in the week, the Dubai-based Gulf News quoted a Kuwaiti health ministry official as saying that the clinical screening targets gay people.

"We will take stricter measures that will help us detect gays who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any of the GCC member states," Yousuf Mindkar, the director of public health at Kuwait's ministry of health, told a local newspaper. Some Arab countries are particularly sensitive to tourists or workers with Aids.

"There is no known medical test to detect homosexuality. I wonder what quackery the Kuwaiti authorities plan to invent in their vain attempt to identify gay men. It simply won't work," Tatchell said.

Unlike in most Arab countries, Iran legalised transsexuality after a 1987 fatwa by the late founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Iran and its Arab neighbours, however, criminalise homosexuality. Despite the legalisation in Iran, the social stigma means that transsexuals there enjoy almost no more immunity than those in the Arab countries. Iran permits more sex-change operations than any other country, except Thailand, and has long subsidised such surgeries.

its a sad day for humanity

my heart bleeds at the narrow minded views makes me cry xxxxx

Thank-you for your reply Amymichelle xxx

aw ya welcome just hurts that there is so much hate in the world and not just for trans for everything

hugs xxxx

Thanks for bringing this to our attention - its not exactly a surprise that the Mid East is mysognist, homophobic and transgender phobic; I guess its a crackdown ahead of time to make it worse for anyone who is not Str8 to go there, though why we would want to I have no idea.

Unfortunately Sepp Blatter makes Tonee Blair look like an honest man, so I dont see this action de-railing the 2022 World Cup in Quatar. So far the weather and the slavery conditions for the migrant workers, building the stadiums and other places for 2022, have not had any effect.

hugs

Pauline xxx

It will be interesting to see if the 'tests' are applied to all the contestants as well as the spectators. We'll soon reach the same level as the Hitler Games - now were is Jesse Owens when you need him/her!

Stuff like this makes me angry.

Very little makes me angry, but institutionalised discrimination will do it every time.

It doesn't matter what gender somebody is. It's an arbitary discriminatory choice, like penalising people for having green eyes, or size 8 feet. It makes very little sense.

Every single person on this planet, be they IQ 67 or IQ 167, black, white, or some shade in between, tall, short, fat, thin, blonde, brunette, male, female, religious or atheist is still a person. Every last one of them.

I may not agree with the Arab Confederate's policy, but I wouldn't call those making the polices inhuman, for they are not; they are simply misguided, ignorant fools, who fear what they do not understand, and will not learn about that which they fear.

Education frees the mind and the soul of humanity, it allows people to be more than the sum of their own experience, and soar with gods. It gives a greater perspective on more than merely the subject learnt.

Those who spend their entire life learning are the super humans.

[/rant]

Debbie

I wonder if any of the men who would like to make this a law ever try an pick up a T Girl or Gay guys when they are out of their countries

Great post Tara. They would be joined by the "straight guys" pursuing Tgirls on contact sites or at places like Naps. P xxx

A very sad state of affairs from a bunch of ignorant fools.