Brunei's LGBT community flees 'inhumane' new stoning laws
Channel: BASILO'S TV
Date: 2019-04-02

(The new laws in Brunei are) inhumane. It's a very aggressive punishment. It's not something that a human should suffer ... just because of being a homosexual."

Transgender woman Zain fled Brunei in late 2018 and is now seeking asylum in Canada.

I wanted to live my life on my own terms, in the sense that I wanted to be a woman. I wanted to live a life without religious fundamentalism, conservatism, so I just left the country," Zain says. "Under Sharia law I would be fined and caned and jailed."

Zain says her understanding of Sharia law increased her concerns about what was to come.

Zain says it's not just the LGBT community that will be threatened by these laws.

Everyone is affected. It's just going to be a horrible life living there, even if you're not LGBT," Zain says. "Women especially would be at a big disadvantage there." The new law also punishes adultery among heterosexual couples with death by stoning.
I'd been living in fear probably since 2013," Zain says. "I was indoctrinated with religious school, so I knew these laws a bit more than my friends who aren't as religious, and I was a bit scared about Sharia law being implemented.

Zain says it's not just the LGBT community that will be threatened by these laws.