“They X-rayed our bodies to see whether we had male or female genitals, even though our passports list us as female. The staff laughed in our faces.” That is how K., a resident of central Israel who asked to remain anonymous, described being denied entry to Dubai on Tuesday.
K. and her friend A., both transgender women, said they were taken for hours of screening immediately after landing for a vacation and were later told they would be sent back to Israel.
According to the two women, they were subjected to repeated physical examinations for more than four hours. Even after being informed they would not be allowed to enter the country, they said questioning continued, while officials ignored their requests for explanations.
“They don’t want to let us in,” K. said. “They did X-ray checks and told us we have male organs, even though both of our passports list us as female. We’ve been stuck here for more than four hours. This is abuse.”
She said airport staff moved them from place to place, denied them access to their luggage and mocked them openly. “Only after more than four hours did they let us go to the bathroom. They took our passports and disappeared,” she said. “They told us it’s forbidden here.”
A. said one airport employee asked how long they planned to stay and then laughed at her. She added that friends had experienced similar treatment while transiting through Dubai.
“We booked a hotel and paid a lot of money,” A. said. “Now they won’t even send us home. There’s a flight at 8 p.m. and we asked to buy tickets, but the officials handling us vanished from their posts.”
A. said their passports were confiscated during the initial screening, leaving them unable to leave the airport. She described severe emotional distress following the incident.
“I began my gender transition at 13. I’m 30 today,” she said. “This makes me feel despair, regret, sadness, pain and humiliation. I’m sitting in the middle of nowhere, bound by rules I didn’t even know existed. People need to be warned.”
She said officials conducted X-ray scans twice after the women refused to identify as male. “I don’t know what they can do to me here. I just want to leave. I want to go home,” she said.
The two women said they contacted the Israeli consulate in Dubai and Israel’s Foreign Ministry seeking assistance, asking either to be allowed entry or to return to Israel, but not to remain in their current situation.
“If we don’t get on the next flight, we’ll be stuck here all night,” they said.