A princess from Qatar has been granted asylum in the United Kingdom over fears that they would be persecuted for being transgender, according to reports.
The Sunday Times of London obtained leaked documents showing that the princess, a member of Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family, told Britain’s Home Office how difficult their upbringing was in the Gulf State.
“I am born a female but was male on the inside. Being gay in Qatar is considered punishable by law and death,” the princess wrote. “Qatar is extremely strict in Sharia.”
The leaked documents also show that the princess ran away while on a family vacation to London in the summer of 2015 and fled to safety with their partner.
The princess included two letters in their application for asylum that described how they had been “depressed ever since I can remember simply because my outside never matched my inside.”
They also expressed their desire to flee the nation’s ruling dynasty in their writing.
“I felt as though my life had been thrown in the garbage,” they wrote. “I never wanted to marry my male cousins like the rest of my family. I am terrified for what my brothers are about to unleash. I am scared.”
Qatar is currently hosting the World Cup, and its ban on homosexuality has been a hot-button issue throughout the global event. Homosexuality in the country is punishable by a prison sentence of up to three years.
An October report from Human Rights Watch found that there were cases of Qatari security forces arresting LGBT people and subjecting them to “ill-treatment and detention” without reason.
“Human Rights Watch interviewed six LGBT Qataris, including four transgender women, one bisexual woman, and one gay man. Doctor Nasser Mohamed, an openly gay Qatari activist, helped connect Human Rights Watch to five of those interviewed,” the report stated.
“All said that Preventive Security Department officers detained them in an underground prison in Al Dafneh, Doha, where they verbally harassed and subjected detainees to physical abuse, ranging from slapping to kicking and punching until they bled. One woman said she lost consciousness. Security officers also inflicted verbal abuse, extracted forced confessions, and denied detainees access to legal counsel, family, and medical care. All six said that police forced them to sign pledges indicating that they would “cease immoral activity,” it continued.
