Comments | johanna_hypatia: The Pakistani transsexual marriage case as seen by a feminist activist

johanna_hypatia

The Pakistani transsexual marriage case as seen by a feminist activist

Jun 02, 2007 00:48

(With al-Fatiha Foundation, I have been following the story about Shumail Raj, a transsexual man, and his wife Shahzina Tariq, unjustly jailed in Lahore under an accusation of homosexuality, because of the misguided claim that Shumail is still a woman. Pakistani feminist Nighat Said Khan of the Women's Action Forum Lahore gives her valuable ( Read more... )

islam, trans, equality for all, feminism

Comments 3

kesnit June 2 2007, 17:24:27 UTC

This was discussed in ftm. A lot of us made comments along the lines of "how could anyone think Shumail is a woman? Look at him!" We also discussed the fact that they married to save Shahzina from an arranged marriage. (Not in a bashing-Islam way. Just "what a horrible tradition.")

I find it interesting to see that Islamic leaders aren't speaking out about this and that there is no penalty in Islam. I was also amused to see that Pakistani law views marriage as a civil contract... (wry grin)

johanna_hypatia June 3 2007, 05:30:32 UTC

> Just "what a horrible tradition.")

I totally agree. As a matter of fact, the way I learned it, in Islamic law women cannot be forced into marriage against their will (see "Marriage in Islam: A Manual" by Muhammad Abdul-Rauf). Too bad so many Muslims are ignorant of this. Ignorant about a whole ton of stuff, dammit. It just gets so frustrating. But yeah, in Islamic law, marriage is exactly that, a civil contract, not a sacrament.

The Straight Dope's motto is "Fighting ignorance since 1973 (it's taking longer than we thought!)" You can say that again.

johanna_hypatia June 3 2007, 20:57:13 UTC

A comment about that photograph. I bet most Americans would see that and think "Typical veiled Muslim woman." Well, probably not. She isn't wearing a niqab (face-veil). If she were really a veiled woman she'd have one. But here, she has just wrapped her dupatta (large shawl) around her, apparently out of shyness at being in a news photograph. She probably goes around normally with her face uncovered, as the vast majority of Pakistani women do. The dupatta is not ordinarily used for veiling.