Malaysian millionaire under pressure 'to stop being a transgender'
- TGID
- Jan 15, 2019
- 2 min read
The Express Tribune
By News Desk Published: January 15, 2019
A Malaysian millionaire hit back at conservative leaders after feeling pressure to ‘change back’ from being a transgender woman.
Cosmetics mogul Safiey Ilias turned down an invitation to have tea last week with Mufti Datuk Seri Zulkifli Mohamad, according to Daily Mail.
According to Ilias, previous meetings with other religious figures had been laced with pressure to return to being biological ‘male’.
Posting on Instagram last week she wrote: ‘It’s not that I don’t want to meet the mufti, but the society likes to expect too much.
‘[It is as if] after meeting the mufti, I ought to change to become a man. Or others will say, it is marketing for a new song, a new product. Or even, riding on religion.’
The Malay Mail reported that the mufti had also used the male pronoun ‘Saudara’ in Malay language to describe the transgender woman.
Ilias, who boasts almost a million followers on Instagram, has made her fortune in the cosmetics industry often sharing posts of her beauty products.
She also regularly shares snaps of her own lavish lifestyle and during luxury holidays. Ilias has also shared snaps of her transition, becoming increasingly glamorous over the years.
In 2016, she made the decision to continue her life as a woman after previously trying to live as a man.
Ilias revealed that she had not only been the victim of bullying as growing up but she had also longed to live as the woman.
When first transitioning she had used the name ‘Sofea’ before switching to her name given to her at birth – ‘Safiey’.
Malaysia is increasingly becoming intolerant towards transgender people, due to which over the past year attacks on trans people is on the rise such as the murder of a transwoman in Klang on New Year’s Day.
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