Transsexuality in Islam

Transsexuality in Islam

Here are the Fatwas (Rulings) of Sunni and Shia Scholars on Transsexuality in Islam:

Sunni

In 1988, scholars from Al-Azhar University, the oldest and most prominent Islamic school in the world, located in Cairo, Egypt, passed a fatwa decree that sex reassignment surgeries were permissible in Islam. The Grand Mufti of the University stated, "It is permissible to perform the operation in order to reveal what was hidden of male or female organs. Indeed, it is obligatory to do so on the grounds that it must be considered a treatment...It is, however, not permissible to do it at the mere wish to change sex from woman to man, or vice versa." This fatwa has set a precedent for the Muslim transgender movement for acceptance within the bounds of the Islamic faith.

Shia

The changing of gender (from man to woman or vice versa) through surgical means is pemissable for transsexuals,

Ayatollah Imam Khomeini, Tahrir Al-Wasilah, Bd. 2, S. 624
Reference (in German): http://islamic-centre-hamburg.de/al-fadsch...90/af090_19.htm

Transsexuals (sex reassignment surgery (SRS))

Q: It has been reported that Your Eminence allows gender change; may we know more about the details of your opinion? What are the juristic justifications and foundations on which you based your judgment?

A: There are many cases pertaining to this subject: One case, which has lately been common in western community, comprises a surgery in which the testes, penis and scrotum are totally removed. In addition, a cavity is made to look like a girl’s vulva. Then administration of the hormone estrogen is prescribed, for the purpose of effecting somatic changes in order for the patient to look more closely in his physical appearance like the other sex. In such a case, man’s anatomical formation is preserved, with the appearance of some feminine features like soft voice, prominence of breasts and hairless beard. Such a surgery makes no difference, for it doesn’t enable the transsexual to have any sexual intercourse, as a woman, with other men, so it will be a male-male sexual relation; moreover, this surgery doesn’t make him a female from the Shari’a point of view. It is just a fraudulent operation to justify the homosexuality, which is still rejected, and despised by the great majority of communities.

Disallowing such a surgery is quite logical, because this operation inflicts the body with damage-removing genital- in the absence of any benefit that outbalances the mentioned damage.

Some other common and known cases of changing one’s sex like changing an epicene to a female. Such cases assume the possibility of changing a female to a male with all characteristics, such as having a penis, having the ability to have sex just like any other man, and acquiring masculine appearance, or the possibility of changing a male to a female by transplanting female gentile, where a transsexual will be just like any woman anatomically and medically, and where a transsexual has a normal vagina, through which sexual intercourse is performed and where the same feelings of the ordinary woman are aroused upon having sex with a man concerning the nature of lust and its secretion. Consequently, there will be no difference between the transsexual and any female except in casual attributes as when a woman has no uterus or she can’t carry a baby since ordinary women may undergo such condition. Accordingly, the transsexual will turn to be an ordinary woman regarding the external features and the sexual characteristics.In the last cases mentioned, we don’t have any proof or legal text that deem them impermissible. Unless we have legal evidence that disallows changing sex primarily, in principle, changing sex and the surgeries in question are permissible.(...)

It is worth mentioning that I am not the only one who adopts such a ruling, for both Imam Khoui in his book “Mounyat El Sail” (the wish of the one who asks) approved sex-change.

Seyed Fadlallah
Reference: http://english.bayynat.org.lb/Jurisprudence/sex.htm

For more information about Transsexuality in Islam, please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsexuality_in_Iran