AFP Forum

LEBANON - SOCIETY - TRANSGENDER
Twenty-year-old Lebanese transgender model, Sasha, poses during a photo shoot in an art studio in a popular neighbourhood of Beirut on January 16, 2016. Sasha lives at home under the protection of her mother and sister but her father and brother do not talk to her. Her brother used to beat her every day because of her feminine attitude and at 16, Sasha ended up hospitalised due to severe injuries. She then took martial arts to learn how to defend herself. Transgender people are heavily stigmitized in Lebanon but on January 16, 2016, Lebanon’s Court of Appeals granted a transgender man the right to change his sex in the civil registry on account of his own gender identification, marking a step toward granting transpeople legal recognition for their status.
Patrick BAZ / AFP