Avenue Mohammed V is silent and desolate this late at night, empty apart from a few stray cats meowing like newborn babies; it’s a creepy sound. (…)
Source: Moustadraf, Malika “Just Different.” Translated from the Arabic by Alice Guthrie. In: The Common - a Sense of Place. 1 April 2016.
Available at [🔗].
Current Affairs
The New York Times article “18 transgender killings this year raise fears of an ‘epidemic’” reports how transgender people are facing an increasingly hostile environment.
links
Rick Rojas and Vanessa Swales, “18 Transgender Killings this year raise fears of an ‘epidemic’.” New York Times, 27 September 2019. [🔗]
Questions
How does religion enter into the discrimination against transgender people in Morocco? At the same time the protagonist appeals to religion in asking to be treated with respect: “Haven’t they heard the expression: ‘Is she one of God’s creations?’” Comment.
How is the protagonist being treated by various people throughout the story — Bushta, parents, teachers, the women and the men in the Hamam, and the doctor. Show how the author fills in the plight of transgender people by each of these encounters.
What form does discrimination against transgender people take in the West? What role might religion play in the West? Does discrimination and support for transgender people run along religious lines or does it cut across religious lines?
Do you think that there is more discrimination and violence against transgender people in recent years or is there more reporting because the visibility of transgender people in society been raised?
Following up on the experience that the protagonist in the short story has in the Hamam, what is your view on gender-neutral bathrooms in public spaces? Does it make a difference whether the bathrooms are single stalls or multi-stalls? If bathrooms are gender-specific, should we restrict access to the gender on one’s birth certificate or should we open up access to the gender that one identifies with? What are the arguments pro and con these various types of bathroom regulations in public spaces?