Makkah, Saudi
Arabia — Riyadh Reem never felt much like a girl
when she was growing up. In fact, from the beginning Reem
said she felt more like a boy.
"This feeling started
growing with me, making me reject any gift that reminded
me of being a girl. Throughout my 29 years, I never
played with dolls. Instead I used to play football with
my brothers and boys in the narrow lanes of our congested
district," Reem told Gulf News.
After medical tests
confirmed that she had more male hormones than female
ones, Reem began the long and arduous process of becoming
a man and taking the name Khalid.
Born in Makkah, Reem
studied at Saudi girl's schools from kindergarten through
high school, travelling south to Yemen for
college.
"I didn't want to be a
girl, to do girls things and wear girl's dresses, and
this caused a lot of psychological trauma. I wanted to
erase all my girlish qualities from my mind and memory,"
she said.
"I used to show great
resistance to wearing the abaya, especially when I was
promoted to first year intermediate, a stage where all
girls should wear the abaya to cover their bodies from
head to toe."
Different
Reem said other children
noticed she was different early on as well.
"My classmates used to
make fun of me and tease me by calling me 'girl-boy'
because I displayed masculine manners and qualities.
"All these years I had
been living with a terrible psychological conflict
because of my inclination towards the world of men. I had
never thought any day that I was a girl," she
said.
In fact, Reem said she
kept aloof from girls and women and never liked
socialising with women because of her masculine voice and
structure of her body.
As a teenager, her body
began developing a "woman's features". Reem also had to
shave her face when she went to college, in part to hide
her masculine features.
All this made Reem
conclude that she really should have been a
man.
Upon completing her
university education in Yemen, Reem returned to the
Kingdom and visited several doctors, all of whom
confirmed she has more male hormones.
They recommended that her
breasts be surgically removed. However, the doctors also
said that there was a problem performing a complete sex
change operation in Saudi Arabia.
New
beginning
However, fate intervened
to help Reem to become Khalid right here in the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia.
"One day, I got sick and
accidentally visited a doctor at Baksh Hospital in Jeddah
who assured me it was possible to conduct a sex change
operation here. He referred me to a plastic surgeon who
successfully operated on me.
"I could not believe my
eyes that I was able to leave the hospital wearing thobe
and shemakh and carrying my new name Khalid," the
29-year-old new man said.
