Pakistan: Religious groups seek to alter sex change law

The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) party recently presented a bill in Pakistan's Senate to seek an amendment to the 2018 Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) act. The Islamic group demands that a medical board be created to decide whether a particular person is allowed to change their sex.

The proposed bill seeks "a prohibition of gender reassignment surgeries or any other treatment to change genital features on the basis of any psychological disorder or gender dysphoria," according to Dawn newspaper.

According to the current law, transgender persons have the right to get themselves registered "as per self-perceived gender identity with all government departments."

The JI bill states that the current law could lead to the "legalization of homosexual marriages" and that under the law, "a person could get themselves registered as a man or a woman not on the basis of their biology, but on their 'personal thoughts.'"

The Islamic party recommends the formation of boards at the district level comprising a doctor, a psychologist, a male general surgeon, a female general surgeon and a chief medical officer to determine whether a person is allowed to change their sex.

Against Islam?

The JI argues that the law runs counter to the Quran and Islamic teachings.

Shireen Mazari, the South Asian country's human rights minister, opposed the JI's bill, saying the proposed amendment was aimed at "victimizing" transgender persons, as the current law gave them the right to identity.

"To date, not a single complaint has been received regarding the misuse of this [existing] law," she was quoted as saying by local media.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad told the Senate that sex changes were allowed for medical reasons or upon submission of an application.

'Promotion of homsexuality'

According to data shared with the upper house of parliament, in the past three years 16,530 sex changes from male to female were processed: 12,154 cases of female to male, 21 cases of transgender person to male, nine cases of male to transgender person, and as many cases of transgender person to female.

The 2018 Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) act was hailed by human rights groups and activists nationally and internationally.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) praised the legislation at the time, stating, "The central and most important premise of the law is the concept of 'gender sovereignty': namely, that individuals who experience and express their gender socially, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually, have the prerogative to determine their gender, rather than official, state/medical apparatuses only assigning gender at birth."

However, Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, who presented the amendment bill, told DW the existing law was "promoting gay and lesbian culture."

"People who come to the government departments seeking a sex change should be referred to a medical board," he said. "We know about cases in which a man changed his sex to a woman and then married a man," he claimed, adding that this "un-Islamic" practice could not be tolerated in the country.

Religious groups say that people who want a sex change are influenced by Western culture and are encouraged by NGOS.

Social taboo and medical complications

Rights activists and several medical experts say the JI amendment will create more problems fortransgender people and anyone who wants to change their gender identity.

According to a 2019 Supreme Court census, the estimated population of transgender people in Pakistan is around 300,000, although the actual number could be higher. Pakistan's population stands at roughly 212 million people.

Farzana Bari, an Islamabad-based rights activist, says the retrogressive forces in Pakistan want to change a "good law."

"It will not only affect transgender people, but all the parents whose children need sex-reassignment surgeries," she told DW.

"Lawmakers have no right to define an individual gender identity," she said, adding that it is the right of individuals to decide their gender identity.

Bari says that those who want sex-reassignment surgery already go through a very hard time because of the taboo attached to it in a conservative society. If the JI manages to amend the law, they will have to "undertake a lengthy process for the surgery."

Transgender people face various challenges in Pakistan, and they are often harassed and sidelined by society.

While constitutional and legal advances have slowly been made in securing basic rights for transgender people, implementation has sometimes been slow.

The community was only allowed to vote in federal elections in 2011. In 2018, they were recognized as a separate category in the national census.

Abid Hussain, a farmer from the Kharian town in Punjab province, told DW that his two daughters underwent gender reassignment surgery a year and a half ago. "It is already very difficult to have this surgery because of the social norms," he said.

"When my daughters had the surgery, only my family and the doctor knew about it. I even kept it a secret from my extended family," he added.

Dr. Amjad Chaudhary, who performed the surgery, told DW that people are reluctant to talk about sex and gender identity. "It is even difficult for them to discuss it with us. How will they appear before a medical board?" he said.

Edited by: Shamil Shams