The Middle East and Gender Bending

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Submitted by Jim Brown on November 5, 2007 - 9:32am

Apropos of our recent conversations regarding gender in the Middle East, see this story about Hussein Rabei:

Formerly known as Zaineb, 33-year-old Rabei was raised as a girl after being born with genitalia that more closely resembled a vagina than a penis. Arab culture and its rigid views on gender meant doctors ignored growing signs that Rabei may in fact be male, he said.

"When I married, my husband used to say, 'It's funny, but when I'm with you it feels like I'm with one of the guys, not my wife,'" said Rabei, who is now divorced.

Rabei returned recently from an operation in Thailand to correct his gender -- a procedure for which he obtained consent from both Sunni and Shi'ite clerics.

He is the first Bahraini to go public with news of such an operation, his lawyer said. It triggered a flood of media coverage and condemnation from many of his fellow Bahrainis for what they see as a procedure forbidden by Islam.

(Link via The Austinist)

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I once read an article that

Submitted by Jim Aune on November 6, 2007 - 11:53am.

I once read an article that a prominent Iranian ts had talked to the Ayotatollah Khomeini and persuaded him that transsexualism is a medical condition rather than a violation of religious law, leading to somewhat greater rights in Iran. Independently of gay rights and gender-self-determination rights (to me, the last horizon of liberal politics), I do still wonder why Christian fundamentalists refuse to recognize transsexualism as a distinct category.