Reem Alsalem

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Reem Alsalem (1976–) is a Jordanian-born anti-transgender activist who has become a key figure of the TERF movement in the 2020s. She is known for using her unpaid position as a special rapporteur on violence against women under the United Nations Commission on Human Rights' Special Procedures mechanism to campaign globally against transgender rights, usually invoking the authority of the UN to give legitimacy to anti-trans junk science and propaganda. She has aligned herself with the TERF movement, supported its talking points and prominent figures and groups within the movement, including FiLiA and Women's Declaration International (WDI), and appeared at anti-trans events organized by the far-right Alliance Defending Freedom. Her Twitter account "[maintains] a steady stream of anti-trans propaganda." Alsalem's abuse of her UN appointment to promote anti-trans hate has been condemned by hundreds of feminist groups.

Activities

She has appeared at the anti-trans FiLiA conference, campaigned against legal gender recognition for trans people in Scotland and claimed that it could "open the door for violent males". She has campaigned against rights protections for trans people in the United States in the name of the United Nations, and promoted the TERF talking point that criticism of the TERF movement constitutes "silencing and vilification of women."

In 2024 Alsalem addressed a panel organized by Alliance Defending Freedom, an SPLC-designated anti-LGBT hate group, that called for "female-only" sports and the exclusion of transgender women.

Feminist criticism

Her views have been widely criticized by feminists. Six large Scottish feminist NGOs including Engender, Scottish Women's Aid, and Rape Crisis Scotland criticized her statements regarding gender recognition in Scotland and said she had failed to speak with Scottish feminists. An open letter by the Association for Women's Rights in Development co-signed by 550 women's rights and human rights organizations including the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the National Council of German Women's Organizations, the Women's Refugee Commission, and Women Deliver criticized her statements and said "there is no place for anti-trans agendas in the United Nations." Legal scholar Jens Theilen argued that Alsalem "is using women’s rights as a tool to undermine trans rights" and considered her actions "a stark example of individual politics furthering rather than contesting oppression."

An extensive report into the WDI movement, titled Rights For Me, Not For Thee: How Anti-Trans Feminists Took Their Advocacy to the United Nations, said that "WDI and their supporters saw their biggest success in late 2022: getting the ear of Reem Alsalem" and that "her official Twitter account [maintains] a steady stream of anti-trans propaganda."

Her anti-trans views have also been criticized by the United Nations Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who said that "everyone — and that includes trans women — should have access to legal recognition of their gender identity based on self-identification."

In 2024 anti-trans website 4W reported that she had effectively been disinvited by the Brazilian government due to her transphobia.