Friends of a transgender woman feared dead after she claimed her family forced her to de-transition have said they are "greatly disturbed" by how she was treated.
Eden Knight, 23, from Saudi Arabia but living in the US, posted a "final message" on March 12 claiming her family hired "fixers" and a lawyer in Washington DC to return her to Saudi Arabia.
The scheduled Twitter post on Eden's account opened with: "If you’re reading this, I’ve already killed myself."
Her friend's wrote a public document summarising Eden’s story including a touching tribute to their friend.
They described her as a "funny, sharp, well-read, and concerned with making the world a better place. She stood up for marginalised people and regularly critiqued the conservative, suffocating culture she had left back home".
Another tweet by an account apparently belonging to her family announced the death of a “young man” with the same legal name as Knight.
According to the document and Eden's final note, she had allegedly been contacted by two Americans who offered to resolve her disagreements with her parents.
According to the message, the fixers introduced her to a Saudi lawyer, named as Bader, who provided her with food and shelter while pressuring her to stop HRT and live as a man.
Eden described her parents as “strict conservative Muslims”.
A spokesperson for the US State Department said: “We have seen these reports and are studying these allegations."
She wrote: "At a certain point, I realised I was entirely dependent on Bader for food and shelter, and that if I ran away, he could easily find my location, and since I was illegal, I would have just been deported to Saudi. I subconsciously gave up, I was too tired."
Knight had been attending an American high school in the suburbs of Washington DC and then an international school in Riyadh before studying computer science at George Mason University.
She had began hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in 2022.
Her friends wrote: "During the global Covid pandemic she came out as trans. Since then, she has been a light in the trans community. Everyone who speaks about her mentions her humour and her kindness.
"She possessed an inner strength that we admire and know deserves recognition."
She was reportedly on an international scholarship that ran out before she could graduate, causing her visa to expire.
Because of her trans identity, she was “extremely terrified” of being deported back to Saudi Arabia and hoped to claim asylum in the US.
She ended up living in Georgia with couple, Bailee and Hayden, who were looking to host and support homeless trans people.
Bailee told Vice News: “She simultaneously started coming out of her shell and became such a bright beacon, but at the same time was overtaken by the shadow of, like, ‘I'm in a lot of trouble. I'm scared."
Her friends are angry about the way Knight was allegedly treated. They wrote: "We are greatly disturbed by how she was treated. We believe that what happened to her was an unspeakable violation and there must be consequences. Justice must be served."
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