A former soldier has traded her Territorial Army beret for a veil to become the UK's first transgender Muslim woman. Lucy Vallender used to be called Laurens and says she is finally 'true to herself' after a sex change three years ago.
The 28-year-old is now married to a Muslim man she met on an online dating site, but he did not know she was once a man when they wed.
She now wears a full veil outside her Swindon home to show the world she is married.
The former labourer said 'she used to love firing guns' and claims she drank regularly with the other squaddies as a TA private, but Lucy knew at 14 she wanted to become a woman.
'I tried to do macho things you know to stop how I was thinking, but it didn't work because I was trying to be someone I wasn't,' she said.
"I tried to do macho things you know to stop how I was thinking, but it didn't work because I was trying to be someone I wasn't"
She converted to Islam last September, explaining that she had thought about it for a while and finally "did it because it is a nice religion - so peaceful." Vallender continued, "I felt good and I had something to believe in."
She's found love as well as self-acceptance since her drastic life changes, and is now married to a Muslim man, Murad, whom she met on an online dating site. Though he did not know that she was trans at the time of their wedding, she commented, "he must have suspected it as he's seen my scars." She's only seen him twice since the wedding, but spoke warmly about him, commenting, "I love him, he's kind and soft spoken."
After quitting the TA the 28-year-old started dressing as a woman and had relationships with men.
She also grew her hair and had hormone therapy before her life-changing operation.
Lucy moved from her family home in Cirencester and plucked up the courage to see her doctor in about becoming a woman.
Ms Vallender said she has now been banned from her local mosque after she refused to pray in a room with the men, segregated from other women.
She now hopes to "get justice" for transgender and Muslim people.
A spokesman for Swindon Mosque said everyone was welcome, as long as they act according to Islamic code.
Voice of Russia, ninemsn, Daily Mail, Huffington Post
Police on Wednesday said they have arrested a woman over the murder of a man at his home in Akita City.
According to police, Aoi Yanagida, 32, was arrested for the murder of 32-year-old Tatsuo Yoshida, who was found collapsed at his home early Tuesday morning.
TBS reported that Yanagida called emergency services at 7 a.m. to say that Yoshida was lying unconscious and needed medical help. Police said that Yanagida then accompanied Yoshida to hospital, and afterward confessed that she had strangled him.
Police said an investigation has been launched into the relationship between the pair and the circumstances leading up to the incident.
RIO DE JANEIRO – Passengers on a Rio commuter train set fire to one of the cars on Tuesday in protest against the bad service, Brazilian police said.
The demonstrators set fire to the first train car after a mechanical failure kept it at a standstill for close to two hours at a spot on the railroad line that connects neighborhoods on Rio de Janeiro’s west side with the downtown area.
The breakdown at 8:00 a.m. held up the rest of the trains on the line, leaving thousands of commuters stranded.
Tuesday’s problem came on the heels of others that occurred the day before, and a similar stoppage last week of almost five hours, which infuriated scores of passengers who had to jump off the train and walk along the rails to the nearest station.
Besides the militants who set fire to seats and other inflammable material in one of the train cars, another larger group made a peaceful protest during which they threw articles of clothing and backpacks onto the rails to vent their rage about the problems of public transport in Rio de Janeiro.
The protests forced the rail operator to close the doors of the two nearest railroad stations to keep more irate passengers from joining in the protests.
It took firefighters nearly an hour to put out the fire.
The incidents occurred at the same time that another group of residents on the west side of Rio de Janeiro blocked a main thoroughfare to protest the deficiencies of the bus service in that densely populated area.
The demands for better public services that shook Brazil in June were sparked by a hike in public transport fares and for problems in the bus and subway services in cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. EFE
BOGOTA – A man died Monday when pushed from a third-floor window in a Bogota apartment building by a neighbor during an argument about loud music, Colombian police said.
The victim, a financial trader in his late 20s or early 30s, was with a girlfriend in his apartment on the second floor, and the loud music they were playing in the wee hours annoyed the neighbor upstairs, who complained about the noise.
Apparently the man who was partying went up to the third floor and began arguing with his 48-year-old neighbor, who attacked him with a knife, and in the ensuing brawl pushed him out a window, causing his immediate death, according to Bogota police.
Other neighbors called the police, who arrived at the building before dawn, where they found the body lying in one of the patios of the condominium and soon afterwards arrested the suspected killer. EFE
BOGOTA – A dead dolphin was found over the weekend on the Caribbean beaches of Bello Horizonte, located on the outskirts of the northern Colombian city of Santa Marta, environmental officials said.
The marine mammal, which weighed about 70 kilos (154 pounds), had wounds that appear to have been caused by a boat propeller.
Bathers found the dolphin floating off the beach on Sunday, brought it ashore and contacted maritime officials, Caracol Radio reported.
The marine mammal was not killed by dynamite, which local fishermen use to catch fish and often kills other species, officials said.
Dynamite blasts are heard regularly off Rodadero Sur, Aeropuerto and Bello Horizonte beaches in Santa Marta, the capital of Magdalena province, and the practice continues despite the arrests of some fishermen. EFE
Mexican authorities are investigating whether the execution style murder of two Cuidad Juarez bus drivers is the work of a female vigilante killer.
Last week two city bus drivers were shot in the head one day apart by an unidentified female wearing a blonde wig. The killer now known as “Diana la cazadora de choferes” or “Diana the Hunter of Bus Drivers” boarded the bus, approached the driver, shot him then quietly exited all in a matter of minutes.
One witness claims the female assassin told the second victim “You guys think you’re real bad, don’t you?” That claim started the female vengeance theory. Then authorities reportedly received an email stating the female vigilante killer’s grievances that struck a cord with the women of Juarez.
The email spoke of the sexual violence women who ride buses to work have to endure at the hands of the drivers, especially those that use city buses to get to border factories at night. Currently authorities are trying to verify the authenticity of the email.
It was bus drivers that were implicated in the disappearance of over 100 Juarez women working at border factories, known as maquiladoras, back in the late 1990’s. Many of the women went missing after riding the bus to work. The two murdered bus drivers were working the route used by women working at maquiladoras.
This Mexican border city, once known as the world’s deadliest cities, near El Paso, Texas is use to violence especially violence against women. Currently Juarez is investigating 12 sexual assaults of female passengers aboard city buses and numerous cases of human trafficking. Authorities are wondering if one of the victims turned herself into a vigilante.
The killer warns in her email “I am an instrument of vengeance.” “While many people know about our suffering, nobody defends us or does anything to protect us.”
That is until now