Trigger warning: this text incorporates themes of detransition and suicide.

On March 12, Eden Knight, a Saudi trans woman living in America, took her own life. As per the testimonies of her friends, in addition to her own statement, Knight’s death was preceded by a shocking chain of events, illustrating all too clearly the interconnected types of violence faced by trans migrants world wide.

Having moved to the US to attend university, Knight got here out as trans in the course of the Covid pandemic. Her friends remember a girl who was “funny, sharp, well-read, and anxious with making the world a greater place […] a lightweight within the trans community.” In a document published collectively, these friends wrote, “Everyone who speaks about her mentions her humour and her kindness. She possessed an inner strength that we admire and know deserves recognition.” When the news of Knight’s death was confirmed on March 13, social media was flooded with tributes and messages of collective mourning.

Knight described what happened within the months leading as much as her death in a final message published on Twitter, an account that has been corroborated by multiple sources. In keeping with this message, Knight was estranged from her parents back in Saudi Arabia and had been contacted by two “fixers” last summer, who offered to assist repair their relationship. Allegedly hired by her parents, the pair work for a firm that provides intelligence and investigation services for each government and personal contractors. Knight considered a family reconciliation unlikely because they were conservative and strongly against her being trans. But she decided it was price a shot, not least – according to her friend and former roommate – since the fixers claimed they might help her to secure everlasting immigration status (on the time, she was an undocumented migrant).

As Knight wrote in her message, she began communicating with them over the phone, they usually initially seemed supportive, mostly asking questions on whether she was secure and had a spot to remain. But when she witnessed a traumatic incident and her mental health worsened, things took a special turn. The fixers persuaded her to go away Georgia, where she was living, and take up residence at a hotel in Washington DC. At this point, she was optimistic.

Eden. I’m so sorry this lifetime of trans joy was taken from you. Thanks for sharing it with us.

We’ll remember you, beautiful angel. Rest well, you’re amongst legends. pic.twitter.com/kjFDE7llUM

— Strewth 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 (@StrewthQueen) March 13, 2023

As time went on, a Saudi lawyer who had change into her sole point of contact since arriving in DC allegedly began pressuring her into detransitioning. She said that he would denigrate her appearance, tell her that it was “higher to cover” being trans, and suggest she should live as a substitute as a female man. When she tried to achieve out to the fixers who had initially contacted her, they ignored her pleas for help. She realised she had change into completely depending on the lawyer for food and shelter, and that, lacking secure citizenship, if she attempted to run away he could simply track her down and have her deported. She cut her hair, stopped taking oestrogen, and allowed the lawyer to book her a flight to Saudi Arabia.

When she arrived, her family berated her continuously and searched through her belongings every day to make sure she was now not transitioning. She was informed that this had been the plan all along: her forcible return was the rationale the ‘fixers’ were hired and exactly what they got down to do. That is the context during which she took her own life.

At any time when a tragedy like this happens, some people rush to suggest that it shouldn’t be ‘politicised’ – but how could it not be? The circumstances of Knight’s death are inescapably political. A trans woman was persecuted with the assistance of an elite US security firm, with the alleged involvement of a person who has connections to the Heritage Foundation, a far-right anti-LGBTQ+ organisation with a history of promoting conversion therapy. Despite clearly having grounds to be granted asylum, she was coerced into returning to a situation where she wasn’t secure – if there have been greater protections for trans refugees or a government body she could have turned to for help, this likely would have turned out otherwise.

Nor is that this an isolated event or solely an indictment of Saudi conservatism. Concurrently this happened, several states across the US try to mandate the experience that Knight was subjected to as a matter of law. As trans legislative expert Erin Reed writes, “Her final message reveals what so many transgender people and those that care about us have said for thus long: for lots of us, forced detransition could be a fate worse than death.” Amid calls to ‘eradicate transgenderism’, that is an end result for which countless public figures across the US at the moment are actively campaigning.

Knight wrote that she desired to see the world recover for the trans community, that she desired to see her community get old, that she hoped for trans rights in every single place. Against the backdrop of America’s rising tide of anti-LGBTQ+ laws, the fight for that world continues.

Should you or someone you realize has been affected by the problems raised in this text, you possibly can access free resources and support from the Samaritans here. For extra support, you may also visit the Mermaids website here or the Gendered Intelligence website here.