Among countries that expressly forbid expression of transgender identities, at least three,

Brunei, Oman and Kuwait, have national laws that criminalize “posing as” or “imitating” a
person of a different sex. Saudi Arabia has no codified law, but police routinely arrest
people based on their gender expression. Malaysia also criminalizes “posing as” a different
sex, not in its federal criminal code but in the Sharia codes of each of its states and its
federal territory. Nigeria criminalizes transgender and gender nonconforming people in its
northern states under Sharia.
In South Sudan, such laws only apply to men who “dress as women” and in Malawi, men
who wear their hair long. Tonga prohibits any “male person” from presenting as a female
while “soliciting for an immoral purpose, in a public place with intent to deceive any other
person as to his true sex.”
In the United Arab Emirates, laws prohibit men “posing as” women in order to enter
women-only spaces. The UAE has used this law to prosecute gay and transgender people
even in mixed-gender spaces.
In Yemen, the law states that unmarried gay men will be punished with 100 whip lashes or
one year in prison, but married gay men face death by stoning. Gay women are to be
imprisoned for up to three years.
In January 2019 a man in Iran was hanged after being found guilty of having sex with
another man. Homosexuality was made a crime punishable by the death penalty in 1979
after the Islamic Revolution. In 2007, then-President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
infamously said during a visit to Columbia University: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals,
like in your country."
In 2014, the then-president of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan signed the Same Sex Marriage
(Prohibition) Act. Not only did it ban gay marriage, but it also banned the registration of gay
clubs, societies and other organizations supporting the LGBT community. Public displays
of affection between gay people is also prohibited. Anyone found guilty of homosexuality
can be put in prison for up to 14 years. While this law is applied across the entire country,
12 northern states have their own laws, punishing gay men and women with death by
stoning.
Intercourse between people of the same sex is illegal in Somalia. Such acts can result in
prison terms from three months to three years. The punishment for other gay activities,
defined as "acts of lust," is also imprisonment but between two months and two years. In
2012, a newly adopted provisional constitution made Somalia's interpretation of Sharia law
"the supreme law of the country," making homosexuality a crime that can be punished by
flogging or the death penalty.