Transsexual702
11-20-2005, 12:10 PM
BLEAK FUTURE AFTER SURGERY"?"
GIVE transsexuals the legal support they sorely need, says an academic who has done a study on transsexuals and written a book focussing on their concerns.
Associate Professor Dr Teh Yik Koon, author of The Mak Nyah: Malaysian Male Transsexuals, said the absence of legal recognition acknowledging their existence as persons of the opposite sex, has made life difficult for this group of people.
The lack of acceptance by authorities and society caused many of them to be discriminated against. As a result, many display self-destructive behaviour and suicidal tendencies.
According to transsexual activists and outreach workers, there are at least 100,000 transsexuals in the country
“If a transsexual has undergone a sex re-assignment surgery (SRS), there is no reason their gender cannot be stated as female in their identity cards.
“Why the reluctance on the part of the Government to do so when medically, the transsexual has changed sex. Also, why make such a surgery permissible for non-Muslim mak nyah when legal support to recognise them is absent after their surgery?” Teh asked.
Teh, a trained criminologist from London and a lecturer in Criminology and Sociology at Universiti Utara Malaysia, said legal support was a crucial lifebuoy for transsexuals to avoid discrimination.
She lamented: “If the law recognises their sex change, seeking employment will no longer be a problem for transsexuals.
“At present, many of them end up as sex workers because of the lack of employment opportunities. Once the law recognises transsexuals for who they are, it will not only improve their employment chances but also give them a chance to attain a better quality of life.
“Currently, with no legal recognition, transsexuals are unable to purchase health insurance, apply for bank loans to purchase houses or legally adopt children because their gender in their identity cards do not correspond with their physical appearance.
“This further complicates matters especially during immigration and police checks.
“It is because of the vaguenesses in the law that transsexuals often face harassment in the hands of police and are belittled due to their appearance.
Teh undertook a study in 2000 with 507 male-to-female transsexuals participating as respondents.
The study, which formed the basis of her book, showed that 74 per cent of the transsexuals had secondary education but only three per cent had attended an institute of higher learning.
The majority of the respondents earned less than RM1,000 per month while the rest lived below or around the poverty line of RM500.
“Discrimination has limited their ability to acquire well-paid jobs which in turn contributes to their impoverished state. The lack of education prevents them from championing for their rights,” explained Teh.
She said more than half of the respondents interviewed confessed they were sex workers.
“My study revealed that half of the transsexual community are sex workers and about 80 per cent of the transsexual sex workers are drug addicts. About 14 per cent had attempted suicide.
“For Muslim transsexuals who have accepted that Islam forbids them from undergoing SRS, cross-dressing and self-acceptance that they are females are good enough.”
No such thing...
Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria, Perak State Mufti, said there is no such thing as a man trapped in a woman’s body in Islam.
“If you are born male, you are a male. A boy may start to feel like a girl due to his surroundings when he was growing up. Perhaps his parents wanted a daughter so badly that they dressed up him as a girl when he was young.
“Or the boy, being the only son, was influenced by the feminine behaviour of his sisters. That could also happen if the boy grew up in a household of women with no strong male figure,” said Harussani when asked to comment on Islam’s view on transsexuals.
“It’s haram for anyone to change God’s creation. That is clear cut.
“What Islam acknowledges is the existence of khunsa (hermaphrodites), those born with male and female sexual organs where both the male and female genitalia are functional. For instance, they can pee with both organs. In such cases, Islam allows the person to seek medical help to determine which organ is stronger and do away with the weaker organ,” said Harussani.
He also dismissed a claim by certain Muslim transsexual activists that the University Al-Azhar in Cairo, Egypt, one of Sunni Islam’s top religious institutions, has come out with a fatwa or edict that Islam allows sex-change operation.
“Itu semua mengarut. The whole (Islamic) world agree on this issue,” said Harussani.
For the record, the 1995 fatwa from Al-Azhar stated that a man can undergo SRS if a doctor deems the intervention necessary to bring out signs of femininity or masculinity which are present but hidden.
Many Middle Eastern countries refuse to recognise sex changes. Jordan, Lebanon and Syria do, but it takes complicated and lengthy court proceedings. Only Iran and Egypt allow their citizens to officially change their gender with relative ease.
GIVE transsexuals the legal support they sorely need, says an academic who has done a study on transsexuals and written a book focussing on their concerns.
Associate Professor Dr Teh Yik Koon, author of The Mak Nyah: Malaysian Male Transsexuals, said the absence of legal recognition acknowledging their existence as persons of the opposite sex, has made life difficult for this group of people.
The lack of acceptance by authorities and society caused many of them to be discriminated against. As a result, many display self-destructive behaviour and suicidal tendencies.
According to transsexual activists and outreach workers, there are at least 100,000 transsexuals in the country
“If a transsexual has undergone a sex re-assignment surgery (SRS), there is no reason their gender cannot be stated as female in their identity cards.
“Why the reluctance on the part of the Government to do so when medically, the transsexual has changed sex. Also, why make such a surgery permissible for non-Muslim mak nyah when legal support to recognise them is absent after their surgery?” Teh asked.
Teh, a trained criminologist from London and a lecturer in Criminology and Sociology at Universiti Utara Malaysia, said legal support was a crucial lifebuoy for transsexuals to avoid discrimination.
She lamented: “If the law recognises their sex change, seeking employment will no longer be a problem for transsexuals.
“At present, many of them end up as sex workers because of the lack of employment opportunities. Once the law recognises transsexuals for who they are, it will not only improve their employment chances but also give them a chance to attain a better quality of life.
“Currently, with no legal recognition, transsexuals are unable to purchase health insurance, apply for bank loans to purchase houses or legally adopt children because their gender in their identity cards do not correspond with their physical appearance.
“This further complicates matters especially during immigration and police checks.
“It is because of the vaguenesses in the law that transsexuals often face harassment in the hands of police and are belittled due to their appearance.
Teh undertook a study in 2000 with 507 male-to-female transsexuals participating as respondents.
The study, which formed the basis of her book, showed that 74 per cent of the transsexuals had secondary education but only three per cent had attended an institute of higher learning.
The majority of the respondents earned less than RM1,000 per month while the rest lived below or around the poverty line of RM500.
“Discrimination has limited their ability to acquire well-paid jobs which in turn contributes to their impoverished state. The lack of education prevents them from championing for their rights,” explained Teh.
She said more than half of the respondents interviewed confessed they were sex workers.
“My study revealed that half of the transsexual community are sex workers and about 80 per cent of the transsexual sex workers are drug addicts. About 14 per cent had attempted suicide.
“For Muslim transsexuals who have accepted that Islam forbids them from undergoing SRS, cross-dressing and self-acceptance that they are females are good enough.”
No such thing...
Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria, Perak State Mufti, said there is no such thing as a man trapped in a woman’s body in Islam.
“If you are born male, you are a male. A boy may start to feel like a girl due to his surroundings when he was growing up. Perhaps his parents wanted a daughter so badly that they dressed up him as a girl when he was young.
“Or the boy, being the only son, was influenced by the feminine behaviour of his sisters. That could also happen if the boy grew up in a household of women with no strong male figure,” said Harussani when asked to comment on Islam’s view on transsexuals.
“It’s haram for anyone to change God’s creation. That is clear cut.
“What Islam acknowledges is the existence of khunsa (hermaphrodites), those born with male and female sexual organs where both the male and female genitalia are functional. For instance, they can pee with both organs. In such cases, Islam allows the person to seek medical help to determine which organ is stronger and do away with the weaker organ,” said Harussani.
He also dismissed a claim by certain Muslim transsexual activists that the University Al-Azhar in Cairo, Egypt, one of Sunni Islam’s top religious institutions, has come out with a fatwa or edict that Islam allows sex-change operation.
“Itu semua mengarut. The whole (Islamic) world agree on this issue,” said Harussani.
For the record, the 1995 fatwa from Al-Azhar stated that a man can undergo SRS if a doctor deems the intervention necessary to bring out signs of femininity or masculinity which are present but hidden.
Many Middle Eastern countries refuse to recognise sex changes. Jordan, Lebanon and Syria do, but it takes complicated and lengthy court proceedings. Only Iran and Egypt allow their citizens to officially change their gender with relative ease.