Sexuality, Gender and Islam- Trans & Intersex


Khanith and Khuntha: (Arabic: خنيث‎, variant transcription Xanith) is a vernacular Arabic term for both standard written Arabic mukhannath and khuntha.

The Arabic word Mukhannath مخنث (literally "effeminate") refers to individuals with a gender identity that is discordant with their visible sexual organs. They are characterized as "effeminate", "not clearly male," and as people who were "born as a male" and who nevertheless feel, behave, and (in most cases) dress like a female.

The Arabic word Khuntha خنثى (literally "hermaphrodite") refers to intersex people.

 

Resources:

-Safra Project research on Gender(roles) and Islam

-Safra Project research on Gender identity in Islam

-Safra Project commitment to Trans and Intersex Members.pdf

-Al-Azhar University, fatwa on allowing sex change operations

-Eunuchs in Islamic Society.pdf

-Gender Roles in India - from "Hijras: An alternative Sex and Gender Roles in India" by
Serena Nanda.pdf

-Mak Nyahs (Male Transsexuals) in Malaysia: The Influence of Culture and Religion on their Identity.pdf

-Mak Nyahs, Country Report Malaysia 2002

-Malaysian Transgender rights...

-Status of Eunuchs from 'Renaissance', a monthly online Islamic Journal from Pakistan

References:
-From the Holy Qur`an, Surah 42: 49 - 50:
"To Allah belongs the dominion over the heavens and the earth. He creates what he wills. He prepares for whom he wills females, and He prepares for whom He wills males. Or He joins together the males and the females, and He makes those whom He wills to be Aqim. Indeed He is the Knowing, the Powerful. "

-From Ayatullah Imam Khomeini, Tahrir al- Wasilah II, p.624:
"The change of the sex (from man to woman and vice versa) through surgical means is permissible to transsexuals." (quoted according to Mohammad B. Ansari, Basel, October 1998)

-From Rhazes (Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Zakariya ar-Razi, one of the medieval muslim founders of modern medicine), "Risalah fi l-Ubnah" ("Thesis regarding the passive desire"):
"If the passive (feminine) desire is prolonged, the person affected by it cannot be cured, in particular, if he is obviously feminine and effeminate and loves very much to be like a woman.

Notes:
Intersex: A general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.

Transgender (Transgender people): Some use transgender/transgender people as a synonym for transsexual(s) or to refer to persons medically diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Others use the term ‘transgender’ more widely to refer to all expressions of gender identity other than simply ‘male’ or ‘female’. Transgender can vary from a surgical change to someone’s biological sex (transsexual(ity)) to occasionally dressing in the clothing of the ‘opposite’ gender (transvestite). A transgender person can also transition - sometimes with the help of hormone therapy and/or cosmetic surgery - to live in the gender role of choice, without undergoing or wishing to undergo (complete) surgery. The term transgender can also include those who identify and/or express themselves as neither male nor female and/or those born with an ambiguous biological sex. The International Foundation for Gender Education defines a transgender person as “someone whose gender display at least sometimes runs contrary to what other people from the same culture would normally expect” (www.ifge.org). Female to male (FTM) transgender people are born with female bodies but have a predominantly male gender identity, male to female (MTF) transgender people were born with male bodies but have a predominantly female gender identity. The Safra Project uses the widest possible definition of transgender and includes those who feel not able to express or display the gender identity of their choice, for example for fear of negative reactions.

Transsexual(ity): refers to people who have a compelling sense that their gender identity is not in conformity with the physiological or biological sex they are born with (see also: gender dysphoria). This may lead some to seek gender (or sex) reassignment surgery to make her/his biological or physiological sex correspond to her/his gender identity. Some people include under the term transsexual only persons who have already undergone (complete) gender (or sex) reassignment surgery, others include those who wish to undergo gender (or sex) reassignment surgery. Some also define the term more widely and use it partially or completely as a synonym for transgender. As the Safra Project uses the term transgender in the widest possible sense, it usually refers only to those having undergone gender (or sex) reassignment surgery when using the term transsexual but respects the rights of others to self-identify as transsexual.