Saudi and trans: Eden’s final message

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In March 2023, the "final message" from Eden Knight, a young Saudi transgender woman, went viral on Twitter. It was viewed more than 35 million times. It laid bare Eden’s journey from the US back to Saudi Arabia, and the betrayal she claimed to have suffered. BBC Eye investigates the events that led up to Eden’s death, and those she claims were responsible for her return to Saudi Arabia where she tragically took her own life.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we start, just to note that this episode contains references to suicide.
0:05.2	Justice for Eden night!
0:07.0	Justice for Eden night! Justice for Eden night! Justice for Eden night! Justice for Eden night!
0:14.6	It's March, 23, and there's a protest outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in London.
0:21.3	There's a small group of protesters, but they're loud,
0:24.8	and carrying big transgender pride flags that are blue, pink and white.
0:31.2	They want answers about the death of Eden Knight,
0:34.8	a 23-year-old Saudi trans woman who took her own life a few days before.
0:44.5	Before she died, Eden wrote and uploaded a final message to Twitter, or X, and that post quickly went viral.
0:52.1	Like, I don't know how to say this any clearer, but like this was cruelty.
0:59.0	It would have been going through all of the emotions myself, and it's not fun.
1:05.4	I was one of the 35 million people who saw Eden's post.
1:09.9	When you actually read the note, it's crazy what she's alleged
1:13.6	that she was deceived from start to finish on the US soil
1:16.8	and then taken back to Saudi.
1:19.7	Eden was living in the US when she first transitioned,
1:22.6	but had returned to Saudi Arabia.
1:25.3	In her final message, she mentions the name of a lawyer who she claims played a key role.
1:31.9	I want to track him down and find the other people named in her message to piece together her final months.
1:38.2	She always told me she was going to kill herself. She wouldn't make it meaningless.
1:44.0	I'm Katie Ling and this is Saudi and Trans, Eden's final message.
1:49.0	It's a BBCI investigation for the documentary from the BBC World Service.
	...

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