ID identifies me as male yet ...
MBABANE - “I get turned back at MTN MoMo pay points because my ID identifies me as a male yet I am dressed as a woman.”
This was said by transgender woman, Model C, who requested not to reveal her real name to avoid stigmatisation.
As one would imagine, being a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) community might come with challenges in a conservative country.
Born male, Model C started transitioning into a woman early in her childhood while at school. During an interview, she shared that when she wanted to utilise services such as Mobile Money (MoMo) to withdraw money and transact, she was allegedly turned back.
Since she is a transgender woman, it means her ID identifies her as a male, but her appearance is that of a female.
She mentioned that MoMo agents had a hard time believing it was her and did not want to risk being defrauded.
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Model C narrated how she had been subjected to insensitive comments her whole life and being transgender had also severed her relationship with her family.
“I was born in the Manzini Region at Mbelebeleni. My family never approved of me being transgender. I was always given man chores but I was unable to complete such duties. These included herding livestock, going to dip tanks, among others,” she said. In addition, she said she realised that her body was changing and that she was more comfortable with female chores. School was also just as hard to navigate for Model C, as boys called her names and bullied her. “The boys from school used to call me ‘Stabane’ whenever I came across them. So when I finished school, I went to stay in Manzini at my grandmother’s place. That is where I got freedom, where I was able to wear makeup, tight jeans, manicure and pedicure and started dating. My actions made my family members angry when they saw my pictures on social media,” she said.
At some point, a family meeting was called for her to address her ‘issues’. The family expressed their concerns over her wearing dresses.
During the interview, Model C revealed that her family eventually came around and they accepted her for who she was.
When detailing her hardships in being transgender in Eswatini, she mentioned that it was hard and sometimes almost exhausting. She said they were not living a normal life because they were deprived of basic services.
“Being a transgender person is not an easy or a nice thing, because the challenges transgender people face are harsh. It is very difficult for me to access my Mobile Money through MTN agents because I have to produce an ID.
“Since the ID reflects that I’m a male yet the agent sees a woman, I always get turned back,” she said.
She mentioned that others who were also transgender had been turned down by banks and had loans declined even though they were eligible.
“We also have difficulty going out of the country because travel documents also identify us as male, yet they see a woman in front of them. We also get violated in bus ranks by bus conductors and there was an incident where I was beaten by some bus conductors,” she said.
Difficulties
Despite having difficulties, Model C has been of help to other transgender community members. She is part of the executive team that started an organisation for transgender people called ‘Trans Swati’.
She said Trans Swati was a trans-led organisation which would like to get more funding from the government to catch up on their projects.
“If only the government would also recognise our existence as Trans Swati. We have been overshadowed by other civil society organisations which are doing transgender work, yet Trans Swati is here and that erases our visibility. And also our fellow LGBTIQ friends have this tendency of speaking ill of Trans Swati and transgender community at large. This action has made other transgender people not come out in the open,” she alleged.
She said another issue they had was that of documentation that was used in health facilities, because the documents they used were not accommodating the trans community.
“The documents are written male and female, so there is no slot for the transgender person. This deprives transgender people from accessing health services in Eswatini because we are put under the umbrella of males, yet our data for trans people accessing health services is erased.