Transgender Activist Faces Discrimination and Violence in Moroccan Cafe

Ayoub El Omary (alias Dina), 21, was made up as usual and went with some of his friends (including another transgender like him) to the Istanbul cafe in Tangier. A rather touristy place... They did not expect at all to be targets of transphobic attacks there.

The HuffPost describes the scene: "Immediately after sitting down, the three young men see the waiter arrive, ordering them to leave the premises, telling them that "they did not serve people like them." Ayoub and his friends refuse to comply with the orders and ask to see the manager of the establishment. It is then that the tone rises and the waiter starts insulting them, quickly joined by customers of the cafe who started beating the three individuals, calling them all sorts of names."

Ayoub did not expect this at all. That is to say, he was not trying to create a controversy, he who openly claims his transsexuality. He just wanted to have a coffee: "It’s a very popular cafe in Tangier, both with Tangerians and tourists. I really didn’t expect such an outpouring of hatred in this particular place!"

On the other hand, this time he would not have let himself be done and would have returned the blows to defend himself and, as he says himself: "claim his difference".

He would also suffer from bruises and this aggression legitimately gives him the right to file a complaint, which he wants to do. And that’s where one of his answers comes to say a lot: "I’m afraid to go to the police and that they’ll arrest me myself because of my makeup rather than arrest the perpetrators."