Gender transition without valid medical reason forbidden: CII

ISLAMABAD: CII Chairman Dr Raghib Hussain Naeemi has said that Islam forbids sex reassignment surgery for individuals whose sex is biologically clear.

Addressing a meeting here on Thursday, the CII chairman, however, said that if an individual’s sex is ambiguous, then he or she could address it through a surgical solution.

The conference was organised with the collaboration of Council of Islamic Ideology and Birth Defect Foundation. The CII chairman maintained it is also forbidden in Islam for a man or woman to adopt or display physical features or appearance of the opposite sex. Dr Naeemi also stressed that the use of the word ‘transgender’ is not appropriate and it should be replaced with the word ‘intersex’.

Explaining the reasons, he said that the word transgender is used by men or women whose sex is clear but they consider themselves belonging to the opposite sex because of their hidden or internal feelings. “Islam does not allow any self-perceived identity of gender as that is already decided naturally by Almighty Allah”, Dr Naeemi said. He also maintained that changing sexual identity because of hidden or internal feelings is also against the Shariat and the same is due to a psychological disease called ‘gender dysphoria’ and it should be treated.

Allama Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, ex-CII Chairman Dr. Qibla Ayaz and Allama Iftikhar Hussain Naqvi also spoke on the occasion. They said children having any birth defect should not be ousted from the family or subjected to physical or mental torture. The parents, they said, should ensure that they remain united with the family. They also maintained it is forbidden for men or women to display the physical appearance or features of the opposite sex. Such an indulgence, they observed, is a big sin adding there is a need to create public awareness in this regard. It is also against the Shariat that one may decide his or her sexual identity other than that one has by birth, they said. Dr. Ansar Javed, Chairman of the Birth Defect Foundation, and Tahir Javed Chaudhry talked about different birth defects and diseases. They also discussed the difference between transgender and intersex. The participants of the meeting were apprised that a transgender is a completely healthy person without any medical defect but starts considering himself belonging to the opposite sex due to gender dysphoria for which they should be psychologically treated. On the other hand, they said intersex people have a birth defect which can be treated surgically.