Are transgender women, women? An exposé on transgender women in the African Human Rights Framework

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Author: Ikpo, D.N.
• Pages: 1-21
• Date: 16 August 2019
• Citation: (2018) 5(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 1
• Published date: 16 August 2019

1

ARE TRANSGENDER WOMEN, WOMEN? AN

EXPOSÉ ON TRANSGENDER WOMEN IN THE

AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMEWORK

David Nnanna Ikpo* and Chianaraekpere Ike**

Abstract

In a world with a history of patriarchal suppression of women, every woman deserves

dignity within existing human rights frameworks. Transwomen are women, and, as

such, are entitled to protection within these human rights frameworks, cognizant

of the intersectional identities that women have and the multi-layered oppressions

that they face. This argument is difficult to make, sustain and defend in a context

where the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI)

conversation is mostly flattened to just issues of sexual orientation, and gender is

largely instructed by repressive heteronormative and patriarchal cultures and social

norms. This research recognises the intersectionality that exists in being both a

woman and a part of the LGBTQI community. Accordingly, this paper focuses on

gender identity and expression of transgender women as distinct but interrelated

grounds within the context of historically and still presents exclusion of women

and LGBTQI persons. It utilises literature to explore transgender identity and

expression, focusing on literary works of fiction and non-fiction. It argues that

transgender exclusion is a challenge to gender equality at international level,

especially in the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination

Against Women, the Yogyakarta Principles, and the Protocol to the African Charter

on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women.

Keywords: human rights frameworks, LGBTQI, intersectionality,

transwomen, women, patriarchy

Résumé

Dans un monde ayant des antécédents de répression patriarcale des femmes, chaque

femme mérited’être traitéeavec dignitéau sein des cadres existants des droits de

l’homme. Les femmes transsexuelles sont des femmes, et par conséquent, ont droit

à la protection dans le respect de ces cadres des droits de l’homme, conscient des

identités intersectionnelles qu’ont les femmes et des oppressions multidimensionnelles

auxquelles elles sont confrontées. C’est un argument qui est difficile à avancer,

justifier et défendre dans un contexte où la conversation autour des communautés

lesbienne, gay, bisexuelle, transgenre, queer et intersexuée (LGTBQI) est

largement aplatie aux questions d’orientation sexuelle et de genre et conduite

par les cultures et normes sociales hétéronormatives répressives. Cette recherche

reconnait l’intersectionnalité qui existe en étant une femme et en faisant partie de

la communauté LGTBQI. En conséquence, cet article met l’accent sur l’identité

* Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, snownspring@yahoo.com;

** School of Law, Univer sity of Washing ton, Seattle;cci ke@uwu.edu.

(2018) 5(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 1

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd

2 JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICA VOL 5, NO 2, 2018

et l’expression sexuelle des femmes transgenres comme étant des motifs distincts

mais interdépendants dans le contexte de l’exclusion historique et toujours bien

présente des femmes et des personnes LGBTQI. Il utilise la littérature pour

explorer l’identité et l’expression transgenre, mettant l’accent sur les œuvres

littéraires de fiction et non romanesque. Il soutient que l’exclusion transgenre est

un défi pour l’égalité entre les sexes à l’échelle internationale, surtout dans la

Conventioninternationalesurl’élimination detoutes lesformesde discrimination

à l›égard des femmes, les Principes de Yogyakarta, et le Protocole à la Charte

africaine desdroitsdel’homme et des peuplesrelatif aux droits de la femme.

Mots clés: Cadres des droits de l’homme, LGBTQI, Intersectionnalité, Femmes

transsexuelles, Femmes, Patriarchie.

Introduction

The 6th Recommendation of the AU Agenda 2063 states: ‘The aspirations

reflect our desire for shared prosperity and well-being, for unity and

integration, for a continent of free citizens and expanded horizons, where

the full potential of women and youth, boys and girls are realised, and

with freedom from fear, disease and want.’

Feminism has become an increasingly debated topic since the

emergence of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Ted Talk, ‘We should all

be feminists’, and its ‘re-debut’ in Beyoncé Knowles’s ‘ultra-feminist’

music video, Flawless. Since then Adichie has become a global resource

of feminist views generally and on specific issues. Whether or not her

views are infallible has not been in contention until recently. What she

said or seemed to have said would in the weeks following her statement

earn her hostility from the women folk and inspire, roughly over a year

later, this paper’s focuses on the position of the law and lived realities for

transgender women on the Afr ican continent, particularly in Nigeria.

In an interview Adichie granted to Britain’s Channel 4, the interviewer

asked:

Staying with the issue of feminism, femininity, does it matter how you

have arrived at being a woman? For example, if you are a transwoman

who grew up identifying as a man, does that take away from becoming a

woman? Are you less of a real woman?1

1 Emily Crockett ‘The controversy over Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and transwomen

women, explained’ (2017), viewed 30 September 2018, from https://www.vox.com/

identities/2017/3/15/14910900/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-transgender-women-comments-

apology.

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