Transgender Saudi man speaks out publicly for first time
Transgender Saudi man speaks out publicly for first time to help others
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As a transgender man from Saudi Arabia, where his identity could see him jailed and flogged, Salman Al-Dukheil waited decades before speaking out about who he is - or who he was.
"My name wasn't Salman when I was born about 28 years ago. It was Salma," the business student said on Thursday. "I was a biological girl."
"I realised that there's others out there," the balding, bearded Al-Dukheil said.
"If I can help one person, if one person can somehow benefit from my having gone through this, why not? I kind of hope for a ripple effect."
Saudi Arabia has no law against transgender people, but the desert kingdom has carried out arrests for cross-dressing and ordered the imprisonment and flogging of men accused of behaving like women, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.
He offered a few words of advice gleaned from introducing himself as a transgender man to unsuspecting strangers.
"Make them like you. Open up to them," he said. "Make it harder for them to push you away.
"At the end of the day, I'm just a person. This is just part of who I am."
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