Russians Ditch Instagram Following Ban, Study Shows



Russians have ditched the popular U.S. social-media platform Instagram after the country's communications regulator banned it for "extremism," opening the door to persecution, a study shows.

Russian-language posts on the picture-sharing platform dropped 30 percent between February 24 -- the day Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine -- and March 24, Moscow-based Brand Analytics reported.

The number of active users also declined by 31 percent during the period, Brand Analytics reported.

Usage of Facebook and Twitter, which were also banned earlier in the month, declined as well but at a lower rate, while Russian social-media platforms including Vkontakte and Telegram saw an increase.

SEE ALSO:
Interview: Will The Russian Internet Resemble China's 'Great Firewall'?

Instagram had been the most popular of the three U.S. platforms, explaining its sharper decline.

Roskomnadzor on March 11 announced it would ban Instagram effective March 14. A week later, a Moscow court reiterated the ban on the grounds the platform was "extremist."

The ruling outlaws Russian individuals or entitles from transacting on the platform, including paying for advertisement or buying goods and services.

Some Russians initially slowed down posting on Instagram following the start of the war due to shock, while others felt doing so was inappropriate or "tone deaf," social-media-content marketers have said.

SEE ALSO:
Russian Instagrammers Face Uncertain Future As Government Tightens Control Over Social Media

The decline in activity on the platform accelerated after March 11, with some influencers saying their views fell by as much as 50 percent.

Many Russians entrepreneurs -- including photographers, artists, shop owners, content marketers, and influencers to name a few -- heavily depend on Instagram to generate income and the ban has been a blow to their livelihood.

Russian Artist Doused In Fake Blood In Anti-War Protests

A Russian artist doused herself in fake blood in a solo protest in St. Petersburg on March 27, before the police came and took her away. Yevgenia Isayeva stood on the steps of the municipal assembly, repeating the phrase "my heart bleeds." She also put a canvas at her feet with an appeal to passersby not to support "bloodshed" in Ukraine.

George Takei got reparations. He says they 'strengthen the integrity of America'

NEDA ULABY

NPR

George Takei testifies before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in California in 1981.

Kaz Takeuchi/Visual Communications Photographic Archive

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. It sent about 70,000 U.S. citizens into internment camps for years, including a very young George Takei.

"I was 5 years old at the time," recalls the actor. "It was a terrorizing morning I will never be able to forget. Literally at gunpoint, we were ordered out of our home."

Best known for playing Mr. Sulu in the original Star Trek, Takei is a longtime activist whose causes have included LGBTQ rights and reparations for Japanese American survivors of internment camps. In 1942, his family was sent to Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas, then later to Tule Lake Segregation Center in northern California. The Takeis were among thousands of Americans who lost their homes, farms, stores, cars, churches, temples and countless belongings because of xenophobia and racism.

"Some people had their life savings taken from them just because we looked like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor," Takei says.


An "I AM AN AMERICAN" sign is displayed at a Oakland, Calif., on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The store was closed and the Matsuda family, who owned it, was relocated and incarcerated under the US government's policy of internment of Japanese Americans.

Dorothea N/Getty Images

Collectively, Japanese Americans forced into internment camps lost more than $6 billion adjusted for inflation, according to an estimate from the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. This is a story George Takei has told over and over: in a memoir, on Broadway, and to members of Congress in 1981. Takei testified at a hearing as part of an effort to push for redress.
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"I urge restitution for the incarceration of Japanese Americans because that restitution would, at the same time, be a bold move to strengthen the integrity of America," Takei told a federal commission.

Working with other activists, he succeeded. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, signed legislation to give $20,000 and a formal apology to Japanese Americans who had survived internment.


Actor George Takei, who received reparations, is a passionate supporter of redress for descendants of enslaved people in the U.S. "For us, it was four horrific years. For African-Americans, it's four torturous centuries."Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

George Takei dedicated the money he received from the federal government to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Now, he's a passionate supporter of redress for descendants of enslaved people in the U.S.

"For us, it was four horrific years," Takei says. "For African-Americans, it's four torturous centuries."

Such solidarity warms the heart of Andre Perry, a renowned scholar of reparations and a fellow at the Brookings Institute. "George is exerting a level of patriotism that we don't see today," he says. "You can be of a different persuasion but share a common cause, a common purpose. I may not be related to you, but civically, I'm your brother. I'm your sister. I'm your friend."

"If he were around, I'd give him a big hug," he adds.

Perry notes that the historic experiences of Black Americans and Japanese Americans are obviously very different, but ultimately, he says, it's about getting to a similar place.

"Even with slavery, it's not impossible to find out who deserves reparations," he points out. "And it's clearly not impossible with redlining and criminal justice atrocities. That was not that long ago. We can identify who is injured and who deserves how much. It's really about willingness."

Last year, composer Kenji Bunch set George Takei's testimony before Congress to music. His piece, called Lost Freedom: A Memory, premiered at the Moab Music Festival. Takei himself provided narration. "I believe that American today is strong enough and confident enough to recognize a grievous failure," he reads in his inimitable baritone. "I believe that it is honest enough to acknowledge that damage was done. And I would like to think it is honorable enough to provide proper restitution to the injury that was done."

Does George Takei still believe that in 2022? He says he does.

He says he believes America — and Americans — are still strong and honorable enough for the best of this country's ideals to prevail.

‘A striking work of nature’: the search for a rare flower in the Philippines jungle

Chris Thorogood had to venture deep into the Luzon rainforest to set eyes on the extraordinary Rafflesia banaoana

‘the world’s most whopping weird plant’

The Rafflesia banaoana flower, in the Luzon rainforest. 

Photograph: Dr Chris Thorogood

Josh Halliday

Sun 27 Mar 2022 

It was after travelling 6,600 miles and battling through the tropical assault course of the Luzon rainforest that Chris Thorogood set his eyes upon the rare and extraordinary flower that ignited his childhood imagination 30 years ago.

Thorogood, 38, last month became the first westerner to see the Rafflesia banaoana – an otherworldly-looking red spotted species that spans half a metre across – in an experience that reduced him to tears.

“It’s hard to put into words the feeling,” he said on Sunday. “It’s a combination of the exertion of the trek, which is quite intense, but also a feeling of sharing a moment with something ephemeral, rare, and a striking work of nature that you can’t see anywhere else. It’s a bit of a tear-jerker to sit with something like that.”

The Rafflesia banaoana is the rarest and most elusive species of the genus named after Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore. The flowers are found only in the deep rainforests of Luzon island in the Philippines.

Thorogood, the deputy director of the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, describes it as “the world’s most whopping weird plant”.

The botanist is quick to point out that although he is the first westerner to set eyes on the Rafflesia, the experience would not have been possible without the work of Pastor Malabrigo Jr and Adriane Tobias, of the University of the Philippines, the only two other botanists to have seen the flower.

Chris Thorogood with ‘the world’s most whopping weird plant’. 

Photograph: Dr Chris Thorogood

The trio gained permission to enter the farthest reaches of the rainforest by the indigenous Banao community, who own the land and escorted them to the flower by hacking a trail through the dense and hostile vegetation.
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By the time they reached the Rafflesia, Thorogood’s arms were covered in blood from leeches and he nursed a plant sting that “felt like someone poured boiling water” on his skin.

The two-week expedition was the culmination of years of planning, but its genesis goes back to Thorogood’s childhood bedroom in Chelmsford, Essex. From the age of eight, he would marvel at photographs of alien species of rare flowers in the remotest corners of the planet.

“There were these extraordinary photographs of these flowers in the jungle somewhere that seems so remote and inaccessible and alien to me, as a child, having never really travelled very far,” he said.

“It’s almost like they were a magnet from the other side of the globe luring me to go and see them. I remember quite clearly as a child being entranced by these photographs in books of these otherworldly botanical enigmas. I think I subconsciously made my plans then that I was going to make it my life’s work to go and see them.”

Rafflesias can grow to 1.5 metres across and weigh 10kg, making them the largest flowers on earth. There are 13 species of Rafflesia in the Philippines and they remain something of a mystery in the scientific world.

Thorogood, the author of a book titled Weird Plants, said it was vital to understand rare species so they can be better protected.

“Two in three of the world’s plant species are threatened with extinction, which is alarming, and we’re losing plant species possibly more quickly than we can describe and discover them,” he said. “We can’t conserve or protect something if we don’t know it exists.”

As for his next expedition, Thorogood is remaining tight-lipped: “With 400,000 or so different plants, there’s a bewildering diversity of plants out there. So it’s very difficult to narrow it down to one or two. But there will be plenty of plants lying in wait for me, I’m sure.”

Scholz’s Social Democrats win big in Saarland election — exit poll

Party of German chancellor set for majority in small western German state, ousting center-right Christian Democrats from power.

Anke Rehlinger, top candidate of the Social Democratic Party SPD in the Saarland state elections | Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP via Getty Images

BY HANS VON DER BURCHARD
March 27, 2022 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats look set for a major victory in the small western German state of Saarland on Sunday, exit polls show, putting the party on top in the first of four regional elections taking place this year.

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) is predicted to get 43.2 percent of the votes, according to the first projections by public broadcaster ZDF. That puts Scholz’s party way ahead of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) of current state premier Tobias Hans, trailing on just 28 percent.

It means the SPD’s lead candidate, Anke Rehlinger, is set to oust Hans, who had previously governed with the SPD as a junior partner.

If the exit poll numbers are confirmed by final results, the Social Democrats would be on track to achieve a majority in the Saarland state parliament and they could govern without the need for a coalition partner.

Of the other parties in the running, only two more are currently set to make it past the 5 percent hurdle needed for entry to the state parliament. They are the Greens — on 5.5 percent, per the ZDF projection — and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on 5.4 percent. It’s still uncertain whether the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), which got 4.9 percent, according to the projections, will make it into parliament.

Although Saarland is Germany’s second-smallest federal state in terms of population, with just below 1 million inhabitants, the vote is likely to bolster the power of Scholz, who was elected chancellor at the end of last year following a surprise victory in the September federal elections. Those elections saw the SPD oust the CDU of former chancellor Angela Merkel, who did not run for re-election, after 16 years in office.

The SPD’s Secretary General Kevin Kühnert spoke of a “landslide victory” in the wake of the vote, arguing it would also have an effect on nationwide politics. “This gives an insane tailwind,” he told ZDF.

Germany faces three even more important state elections this year: in Schleswig-Holstein on May 8; in North Rhine-Westphalia, the biggest state in terms of population, on May 15; and in Lower Saxony on October 9.

Taliban Ban VOA, BBC News Shows in Afghanistan

March 27, 2022 
Ayaz Gul

A screenshot of VOA Pashto website, March 27, 2022.

ISLAMABAD —

The Taliban have barred private television stations in Afghanistan from airing Voice of America (VOA) and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) news programs.

The ban is the latest in a series of restrictions the Islamist group has imposed on Afghan media to stifle freedom of expression since taking control of the country last August.

VOA, which is headquartered in Washington, has swiftly denounced the Taliban for taking its programs off air.

“We ask the Taliban to reconsider this troubling and unfortunate decision,” Acting VOA Director Yolanda Lόpez said in a statement Sunday. “The content restrictions that the Taliban are attempting to impose are antithetical to freedom of expression that the people of Afghanistan deserve,” said Lόpez.

The American broadcaster produces a half-hour news bulletin in Pashto and Dari, the two main languages spoken in Afghanistan, five days a week for its Afghan partners, TOLO news and Shamshad TV.

Lόpez added “while we are disappointed and saddened by the Taliban’s orders to our television affiliate partners in the country, our commitment to providing factual information to the people of Afghanistan is one that the Voice of America will continue on television, radio, and the internet on www.pashtovoa.com and www.darivoa.com, as well as on social media.”

The head of languages at BBC World Service also called on the Taliban to immediately remove the ban on its news bulletins.

"The BBC's TV news bulletins in Pashto, Persian and Uzbek have been taken off air in Afghanistan, after the Taliban ordered our TV partners to remove international broadcasters from their airwaves," Tarik Kafala confirmed in a statement Sunday.

“This is a worrying development at a time of uncertainty and turbulence for the people of Afghanistan,” Kafala said.

He noted that “more than six million Afghans consume the BBC’s independent and impartial journalism on TV every week and it is crucial they are not denied access to it in the future.”

A Taliban information ministry spokesman, when asked for his comments on whether they have ordered Afghan channels to remove the international broadcasters from their airways, told VOA he would collect information and get back.

Domestic and international critics say media and freedom of speech have worsened under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Afghan journalists have been repeatedly detained and subjected to violence by security forces. The interim Taliban government has issued a set of “journalism rules,” including media compliance with the group's interpretation of Islamic doctrine on “enjoying good and forbidding wrong.”

In December, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released a survey, showing that at least 40% of Afghan media outlets have disappeared and more than 80% of women journalists lost their jobs since the Taliban takeover of the country.

The research found that the environment for journalists in the capital, Kabul, and the rest of the country has become “extremely fraught.” Critics say conditions for local journalists to work freely have since further deteriorated.

Hundreds of journalists have also left Afghanistan since August for fear of Taliban reprisals or because of problems associated with practicing their profession under the new rulers.

More than 6,400 journalists and media employees have lost their jobs since August 15 when the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to the RSF survey.

The ban on VOA and BBC programs comes as the Taliban are under increased international pressure and condemnation for keeping schools shuttered for teenage Afghan girls.

The Taliban reopened secondary schools after the winter break Wednesday, March 23, which also marks the start of the school year for most Afghan provinces.

But the de facto authorities at the last minute decided against allowing girls above the sixth grade to return to the classroom, citing a lack of arrangements for them, including school uniforms, in accordance with Sharia or Islamic law.

Afghan women’s rights activists and girls took to the streets Saturday to demand the Taliban reopen schools to girls. They have pledged to launch a wave of countrywide protests if authorities fail to open girls’ schools within a week.

The international community has not yet recognized the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, citing continued concerns over human rights, terrorism and a lack of inclusivity in the male-only government in Kabul.

FAKE FOOD--STAR TREK REPLICATOR
3D-Printed Meat Substitutes Make a Splash in Europe

ByChristiana Kontou
March 27, 2022
Redefine Meat is expanding its product categories to include whole cuts of meat. Credit: Redefine Meat

Already massive food industry is expected to get even larger. The data firm Allied Market Research says that the meat substitute market is expected to reach $8.1 billion by 2026.

Whether for health reasons or religious motivations, consumers have been increasingly turning to meat substitutes for their culinary enjoyment, both at home and when eating out.

This trend has generated many companies that specialize in such meat substitutions. Companies such as California-based Impossible Foods Inc are bringing consumers Impossible Burgers to a supermarket near them, as well as the Impossible Whoppers that are now available at their nearest Burger King.

3D Printed Whole Cuts of “Meat”

Now, the Israeli-based start-up Redefine Meat is upping the ante, bringing 3D printed meat substitutes to markets throughout Europe. The company which was founded in 2018 had ten employees in 2019 with a first round of seed-funding; now in 2021 it has reached 100 employees.



Redefine Meat boasts five product variations in ground meat substitutes, including burgers and sausages, but perhaps its greatest endeavor of all is whole cuts of plant-based meat alternatives, such as hanger steaks and skewers.

In keeping with the industry’s innovative take on food, the company refers to its product line as “New Meat,” challenging the status quo.

The company believes the whole cuts will broaden the appeal of alternative meat products that have mostly been limited to ground-beef dishes, acknowledging, however, that these larger cuts of alternative meat are more complicated to produce and are still evolving.

But the goal is clear. “This is the money-maker. This is the reason we have meat,” CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit said.

Currently, the major competition for Redefine Meat is in the United States, with behemoths such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, but Spain’s Novameat has strong footing in Europe. Israel’s Redefine Meat is planning on opening factories in the United States, Asia, and European countries, hoping to give the older companies a run for their money.

“We raised the largest amount by far that an Israeli alternative meat company has ever raised,” Ben-Shitrit said, having just secured $35 million in funding, on top of an additional undisclosed amount.

All Redefine Meat products are made from plant-based ingredients, and are free from GMOs, antibiotics, cholesterol, and animal-based products. The start-up’s main appeal, however, is the combination of its product range, which unlike its competition goes beyond ground meat substitutes to include whole cuts, as well as its 3D-printing technology.

This proprietary technology and its passion for excellent plant-based meat substitutes are what makes company members believe that it can become “the world’s largest meat company by offering every single cut that a cow does,” Ben-Shitrit says.

The future of the company is based on not only selling the products to retailers but also selling their 3D printing technology to meat distributors, thus scaling their business exponentially.

The industrial-scale digital manufacturing technology is patented and manages to fully replicate the muscle structure of beef, although the meat substitute products are made of a mix of pea protein, soy, beetroot, chickpeas, and coconut fat. The result is high in protein and has no cholesterol, yet looks, cooks, feels, and tastes like the real deal, according to the startup.

If you are wondering how the company can accomplish the lofty goal of creating a true-to-taste meat substitute using only plant-based ingredients, perhaps it is because 75 of their 100 employees identify as carnivores, so they know good meat when they eat it.

Putin popularity rose to 71% in February as tensions with West over Ukraine built up

Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have enjoyed a nationalist bump in the first months of this year, seeing his popularity rise to 71% as of February as tensions with the West built up.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s personal popularity was boosted thanks to the rising tensions with the West to its highest level since May 2018 of 71% in February, according to most recent data from independent pollster the Levada Center.

The president’s popularity received a fillip from a surge in nationalism as tensions rose during the build up to the war that started after Russia's attack on Ukraine on February 24. Levada has yet to update its survey for March, the month when fighting began in earnest.

Putin is enjoying a similar bump that followed the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The last time Putin’s popularity was over 71 was in May 2018, where his rating was in the 80s for most of the previous four years after the annexation. That May represented the end of the extra support due to the annexation and a return to normal.

The Ukraine crisis began at the end of October after the Washington Post published a report that Russia was massing troops on the Ukraine border with the intention of invading. That was followed by two rounds of diplomacy with a meeting on January 10 in Geneva with the US and a second round of diplomacy starting with a visit to Moscow by French President Emmanuel Macron on February 8. Both rounds failed to find a compromise that resulted in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia at the end of February.

Putin’s popularity rose throughout the rising tensions, going from a low of 61% in August of 2021 to end the year at 65% and continued to climb to 71% as of February, according to Levada.

The approval of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has also rising throughout the year to a high of 60% in February, its highest level since August 2020, when his popularity briefly jumped as Russia’s four-year-old recession came to an end.

The approval rating of the Russian government has also risen modestly to 53%, and its disapproval rating falling to 42%. The government’s approval rating is at its highest level since December 2015, when it was enjoying the spillover glow from the annexation of Crimea a half a year previously.

The state Duma has also enjoyed a bump to its approval, posting an approval rating of 47% in February, its highest level since April 2016, but the larger part of the population still disapprove (49%) of the Duma.

Russia’s governors are also seeing a surge in their popularity, which posted an approval rating of 62% in February, Levada says, versus a disapproval rating of 27%.

The governors remain the most popular institution after Putin, and nearly overtook him in popularity in 2020. While they are seeing their popularity growing again now, Putin’s popularity has risen faster and widened the gap between the two.

Despite the mounting tensions with the West, the majority of the population (52%) thought that the country was going in the “right direction” in February as opposed to the “wrong direction” (38%), according to Levada. The last time the majority thought Russia was going in the right direction was last May, just before the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns began.

The relative calm and totally unexpected invasion of Ukraine came as the propensity to protest was rising slightly in the first months of this year, although overall this propensity remains subdued. The propensity to protest with political demands rose, with 29% of those surveyed saying such protests were possible, and another 18% saying they would participate if those protests happened.

Likewise, 29% said protests with economic demands were possible and 23% of respondents said they would participate if those protests were to happen.

 

 

By bne IntelliNews March 27, 2022

BIDEN APPROVAL LOWEST EVER

Over Half of Americans Say US Will Be—or Is—at War With Russia: Poll

BY JASON LEMON 

ON 3/27/22

A majority of Americans believe that the United States is already—or soon will be—at war with Russia, new polling shows.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, drawing swift international condemnation. Ahead of the unprovoked assault, President Joe Biden and Western European leaders warned repeatedly that an attack from Russia against its Eastern European neighbor was imminent.

In the wake of the invasion, the U.S., Canada and European allies quickly implemented stringent sanctions targeting the Russian economy, as well as Putin and other Moscow elite directly. The U.S. and NATO allies have rapidly transferred billions of dollars in weapons, military equipment and humanitarian aid to assist Ukraine as it fights back against the Kremlin's assault.

Although Biden has repeatedly asserted that the U.S. does not plan to send troops to assist Ukraine, many Americans believe that the country has already gone to war with Russia or will soon be in direct conflict with the adversarial nation.

New polling released Sunday morning by NBC News shows that 57 percent of respondents believe the U.S. is already at war with Russia, or that it will be within the next year. Of those, 41 percent believe the U.S. is on the brink of war with Russia and will be in direct military conflict with the country soon. Sixteen percent said the U.S. is already at war with Russia.

A majority of Americans believe the U.S. is already—or soon will be—in a war with Russia. Above, President Joe Biden is greeted by Colonel Matthew Jones at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on March 23.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES


Biden's response to the Russia-Ukraine war also doesn't appear to be drawing much confidence from Americans. Only 28 percent of respondents said that they have "a great deal" or "quite a bit" of confidence in the president to respond adequately to the crisis. Meanwhile, 44 percent said they had "very little" confidence in Biden's ability to respond to the war, and an additional 27 percent said they had "just some" confidence.

The NBC News polling also marked a new record for Biden—the lowest approval rating of his presidency. Just 40 percent of respondents said they approve of the job he is doing in the White House, while 55 percent said they disapprove.

That's nearly a complete reversal of where NBC News polling had Biden about a year ago in April of last year. At that time, 53 percent of respondents said they approved of the president while 39 percent said they disapproved. It also marks a decline since January, when 43 percent said they approved of Biden's performance as commander-in-chief.

Those findings are slightly worse than the current FiveThirtyEight average of national polls. That currently shows, as of Sunday morning, that Biden's approval rating stands at about 42 percent, as 52.8 percent disapprove of the president.

The NBC News poll was conducted from March 18 to 22 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. One thousand adults were surveyed.

Biden has said that the U.S. will respond directly to Russia if it launches an attack against a NATO ally. On Thursday, the president also said the U.S. would respond "in kind" if Russia uses chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.

"The nature of the response depends on the nature of the use," he added.

Speaking in Poland on Saturday, the president said: "We will have a different future—a brighter future rooted in democracy and principle; hope and light, decency and dignity; of freedom of possibilities. For God's sake, this man [Putin] cannot remain in power."

The White House later clarified the president's remarks after many interpreted them to mean Biden was calling for Putin's removal as Russia's president.

"The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region," the White House said. "He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change."

Speaking with Russia's Tass news agency, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to Biden's comments about Putin saying that "each time such personal insults narrow the window of opportunity for our bilateral relations under the current [U.S.] administration. It is necessary to be aware of this."

Trans Thai model deported from Dubai because her passport identified her as male

"He asked if my boobs were big or small," she wrote, adding that airport staff forced her to wait in the men's waiting room.

By Molly Sprayregen

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Photo: Screenshot, Facebook Video

A Thai model says she was deported from Dubai International Airport because she’s transgender.

According to her Facebook post detailing the story, Rachaya Noppakaroon was planning to appear at an event in the United Arab Emirates when she was stopped at the airport because the gender marker on her passport identified her as male, despite her presenting as female.

Related: Texas school official orders librarians to remove LGBTQ books from shelves

In Thailand, it is not possible to legally change the gender marker on a person’s ID, so Noppakaroon had no way of providing accurate documentation.

Airport staff held her for nine hours before sending her home to Thailand and telling her to come back when her documents say she is female.

Noppakaroon said it felt like “a nightmare while opening my eyes,” according to Facebook’s translation of her post.

She also asserted she had all of the documents she needed, from a passport to a visa to proof of vaccination.


“They asked me to go to a room and asked me why I was a man,” she said.

And after waiting for hours to be interviewed, she tried to show one of the airport employees proof of her modeling work in Thailand but said he “was more interested in sex.”

“He asked if my boobs were big or small,” she wrote, adding that they forced her to wait in the men’s waiting room.

She also repeatedly mentioned one employee who was kind to her and who checked in to see if she was okay.

Throughout the entire ordeal, she said she couldn’t stop crying.

In the U.A.E., it is also illegal to change one’s gender and there are no anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people. Homosexuality is also criminalized, and it is illegal for “any male disguised in a female apparel” to enter a women’s space.

Nevertheless, Noppakaroon wrote that she doesn’t hold the airport employees responsible.

“We don’t blame Dubai employees for this (but we’re angry). We blame Thai law if they look down on us and many people who have to face problems like us. I hope they will see that it’s something that needs to be fixed.”