In September, news broke that Thai immigration authorities had made an unusual arrest in Bangkok.
According to the BBC, Telegraph reports, the arrested person was Nur Sajat Kamaruzzaman, a 36-year-old cosmetics entrepreneur from Malaysia, with a large number of followers on social media.
Malaysian authorities immediately sought her extradition on charges of insulting Islam, which were brought against her in January and carry up to three years in prison.
The allegation came after Nur Sajat wore a 'baju kurung', the traditional long-sleeved garment worn by Malaysian women, to a private religious ceremony she held in 2018.
Nur Sajat is a transgender woman and as such was granted refugee status and allowed by Thailand to seek asylum in Australia.
In the eyes of the Malaysian authorities, Nur Sajat is considered male and according to Islamic law, a man cannot dress as a woman.
Speaking to the BBC from Sydney, she said she had no choice but to flee after being attacked by officers from JAIS, the religious affairs department in Selangor state, which had brought the charges against her.
"I had to get away. They treated me harshly, hit me, pushed me, handcuffed me, all in front of my parents and family. I felt ashamed and sad. I gave them my cooperation, but they still did this to me," she said.
"Maybe it was because they see me as a trans woman, so they didn't care if I was held, beaten. We trans women have feelings too. We deserve to live our lives as normal people."
Gender confusion
Nur Sajat is a successful entrepreneur. Seven years ago, she says, she started promoting herself on social networks. She developed her own skin care and health supplements, doing particularly well with a corset bearing her brand name.
With a clean-cut look and playful social media posts, she gained hundreds of thousands of followers and became a national celebrity. Then the questions about her gender started.
It had never been a secret. Nur Sajat participated in a famous transgender beauty pageant in Thailand in 2013, winning an award for her dance.
What sparked reactions in Malaysia was that she was also a practicing Muslim and posted photos wearing the hijab, the Islamic head covering for women.
She explained to those who asked that she was born with both male and female genitalia, or intersex – a condition which in Islam is treated with more tolerance than those who change their birth sex.
In 2017, Nur Sajat announced that she was now physically fully female and posted a doctor's report to back it up.
The authorities decided to start the investigation. JAKIM, the Department of Islamic Development, said it would need proof that she was born intersex. Offering to help Nur Sayat with what he called "gender confusion".
There was more controversy last year when pictures of Nur Sayat, dressed in women's prayer clothes, with her family on a pilgrimage to Mecca were published, sparking criticism from conservative Muslims.
She later apologized for causing such a stir, but within a year she was facing criminal charges.
“When I was in the holy land I just wanted to wonder… maybe there is a reason for how I was born?” said Nur Sayat. "As a transgender and Muslim woman, I believe I have the right to express my religion in my own way. There is no reason for them to punish me as if they are doing God's work," she says.
The BBC asked Malaysia's Department of Religious Affairs for comment on Nur Sajat's case, but has not received a response.
In September, Minister of Religious Affairs Idris Ahmad said: “If he is willing to come to us, admit that he has done wrong, if he is willing to return to his true nature, there is no problem. We don't want to punish him, we just want to educate him." /Telegraph/