How can a woman get equal rights in Saudi Arabia? Why, by going overseas and mutilating herself, of course:
Al Watan newspaper said the five women underwent sex change surgery abroad over the past 12 months after they developed a “psychological complex” due to male domination.
Women in Saudi Arabia, which adopts an austere interpretation of Islam, are not allowed to drive or even go to public places unaccompanied by a male relative.
The newspaper quoted a senior cleric as saying the authorities have to fill what he described as a legal vacuum by issuing laws against sex change operations.
What? There’s no verse in the Quran specifically dictating how to persecute transgendered women? You’d think that Allah would have told Mohammed about sexual-reassignment surgeries soon after telling him not to let the womenfolk drive automobiles.
Being the curious fellow I am, I figured I’d try to learn a bit more on the issue. And sure enough, al-Fatiha is an organization which speaks out for gay, lesbian, and transgender issues in the Islamic world, but it appears to be down for the moment. This page at Wikipedia doesn’t say much, although it speaks volumes with:
In 2001, Al-Muhajiroun, an international organization seeking the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate, issued a fatwa declaring that all members of Al-Fatiha were murtadd, or apostates, and condemning them to death.
Well, that’s not very nice of them. Death to transgendereds and Death to cartoonists and Death to Jews. Whatever happened to a good wholesome pillow-fight or a lively debate?
Digging deeper… let’s see… as for the Safra Project, I’m finding it rather hard to navigate.
Maybe I should just wait for Dame Edna to do a report on it?
While not as hardline as SA, Iran made the news several years back for permiting its citizens to have SRS. And, if memory serves, the operations were included in their healthcare system, as they are in Canada and Europe.
That said, I’m not sure why the term “mutilating” is used along side SRS. As the article states they went abroad for the transition and received psychological guidance, one would assume that the psychologist(s) saw these SAians as fitting the condition of Gender Identity Disorder (as described in the DSM-IV), or they wouldn’t have been permitted to transition… I’m going to be optimistic and hope that the story isn’t as simple, or clear cut, as Yahoo News is making it out to be.