Zeynep is a graduate student in Cultural Studies at Sabancı University. She conducted an oral history interview with Defne about her trans woman identity and faith.
Zeynep:
"My first oral history interview was like riding a roller coaster. I could not foresee when the interview would speed up, slow down, or what kind of answers I would get to my reactions. However, this ambiguity amazed me and made me even more excited. That is why I wanted to get on the roller coaster again and again. I feel the same anxiety and uneasiness in every oral history interview but in different ways. What’s interesting is that this excitement continues after the interview.”
From the interview:
“People told me the exact opposite when I first took my headscarf off. Some Muslim friends said, ‘There was nothing like this [LGBTQ] during the time of the Prophet. That’s why we do not know’. I think it’s the opposite. I mean how do we know what we know now? Thanks to the hadith. The people who studied the hadith were ignorant about these issues [LGBTQ]. For instance, if hadiths were studied in a well-informed way, then perhaps other things would show up. It is all about the point of view. For we only know what we are told, and just live in that way. Also, our Prophet, the person I believe in, and Allah would not punish someone because s/he is transgender. It is Allah that created the trans person. It is Allah that created the cisgender person. I believe that Allah created humanity beyond gender, woman or man. That is, it is Allah that created the human being as human, or the animal as animal. It is Allah who created existence.”