In Malaysia, a mother’s love offers her trans daughter refuge

In a village on the outskirts of Kota Bharu, in Malaysia’s deeply conservative northeastern state of Kelantan, Rozi* has learned to ignore what people say about her daughter.

She had known for years that Hana* was different. As a child, Hana preferred girls’ clothes and spent most of her time with girls. Later, after leaving Kelantan to study, she began transitioning and eventually returned home, living openly as a woman.

Rozi, 58, struggled to accept it at first, but what troubled her more was the thought that rejecting Hana might push her out of the family altogether.

“When you see your own child’s face, what mother does not love her child?” Rozi told This Week in Asia. “No matter how bad people may think your child is, she is still your child. If I didn’t accept her, she would go further and further away from me. I don’t want her to be far away.”