HRW urges Kuwait to overturn transgender woman’s conviction
Al Jazeera
Maha al-Mutairi has been sentenced to two years in prison for ‘imitating the opposite sex’ online.
Human Rights Watch has called on Kuwait to overturn a conviction against a transgender Kuwaiti woman sentenced this month to two years in prison for “imitating the opposite sex” online and to amend a law that allows such prosecutions.
A court in the Gulf Arab state on October 3 also fined Maha al-Mutairi, 1,000 dinars ($3,320), saying that she was “misusing phone communication” with her online posts, the rights group said on Thursday.
Mutairi, 40, who has been detained several times for her transgender identity, told HRW that she went into hiding after the conviction but was arrested at a hotel and is now being held in a men’s prison in a solitary cell designated for transgender detainees.