In August 2006 Ian Young, who was working as a security guard at the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, sat next to a beautiful 32 year old young woman in the crowded Starbucks at the base of the Petronas Towers.Little did the then 26 year old know at the time he would be sitting next to his future wife. He also didn't know at the moment she was trans. Fatine and Ian struck up a conversation and at the end of it when she got up to leave Young asked her out.
Fatine transitioned at age 17 and after revealing her trans status to him, he still took her out to a local bar. A friendship and romance was kindled that night which eventually led to her moving to the UK and marrying Young.
But Fatine's paperwork to remain in the UK with her husband met some resistance and she faced deportation to a Malaysia that is not exactly friendly to trans people thanks to increasing Islamic fundamentalist anti-trans sentiment.
The UK Home Office wanted her to go back to Malaysia and reapply for admission into the UK, and she had already had some questionable nitpicking occur with her application in addition to outright transphobia in the Kuala Lumpur office because gender code on her Malaysian passport didn't match the presentation of the person in possession of the passport.
The publicity surrounding her love story also plucked some nerves in Malaysia's Muslim community and generated death threats on her FB page. Had she been deported, as a Muslim she faced being arrested and tried under Sharia law upon her arrival, so she applied for asylum in the UK.
I'm happy to report that it was recently granted, and now Fatine can focus on living her life with the man she loves.
I love happy endings.
