Malak al-Kashif

Malak al-Kashif (born 1 November 1999) is an Egyptian human rights and LGBT rights activist. Al-Kashif is the first known openly transgender Egyptian to be arrested for political reasons.

Early life Al-Kashif was raised in a religious household in Abha, Saudi Arabia, alongside two older sisters and a brother. She memorized parts of the Quran as a child.

Al-Kashif left home on her birthday in 2013. She survived, but faced difficulty in obtaining proper medical care; she was placed in male wards, and medical staff threatened her with arrest.

Activism In 2015, al-Kashif began learning more about politics, feminism, and LGBTQ rights. At the time, she was working at Transat, a trans rights organization. The arrest came after she participated in a protest calling for justice following a train accident in Cairo in late February; at least 34 other Egyptians associated with the protests were also arrested. She was charged with alleged "misuse of social media", a charge commonly used against peaceful protesters, and "aiding a terrorist group to oppose the state". The following day, the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered her to be detained for 15 days. a charge which the government later denied. Her whereabouts were unknown to her friends and her lawyers until four days after her arrest, when they found her at the New Cairo Prosecution.

Al-Kashif was kept in solitary confinement as part of pre-trial detention at the Tora men's prison for four months.

Al-Kashif and the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) later filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Interior "to demand the allocation of safe detention places for transgender individuals". The lawsuit was rejected.