Brunei transgender teen seeks asylum in Canada after passing of Islamic laws to punish gays, adultery and rape with death

The laws, elements of which were first adopted in 2014, have been rolled out in the country of 400,000, stirring international outrage

In 2014, she heard about two people fined and jailed for cross-dressing and knew she had to flee. Now in Canada, she hopes for a permanent new home

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A man walks past the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. Photo: EPA

Published: 2:38pm, 17 Apr 2019Updated: 9:13pm, 17 Apr 2019

Zoella Zayce displays no photos of her family in her basement flat in Vancouver, thousands of miles from where she left them in Brunei. The 19-year-old refugee claimant is a transgender woman, something she never told the family she describes as conservative.

Back home, family and friends sometimes asked if she was gay. It was an alarming question in the Southeast Asian country, which this month introduced new Islamic laws to punish homosexuality, adultery and rape with the death penalty, including stoning.

The laws, elements of which were first adopted in 2014, have been rolled out in the country of 400,000, stirring international outrage.

“I just did not feel safe with my family,” said Zayce, who knew from childhood that she was transgender. At 11 or 12, she remembers being forced to visit a cleric who performed a ritual she described as an exorcism or cleansing. “I was traumatised.”

Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah delivers a speech during an event in Bandar Seri Begawan on April 3. Photo: AFP

In 2014, she heard about two people fined and jailed for cross-dressing: “I knew I had to leave very soon.”

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