Pak fatwa allows marriage between transgenders

ISLAMABAD: In a surprising move, an Islamic scholar in deeply conservative Pakistan has issued a fatwa stating that Islam allows marriages between transgender individuals.

“A transman can marry a transwoman and vice versa, but intersex person – people born with physical sex characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies– cannot marry at all according to Islam,” Mufti Muhammad Imran Hanfi Qadri said in the fatwa.

The decree was issued by the scholar from the Barelvi school of thought on Sunday at the request of Muhammad Ziaul Haq Naq-ashbandi, chairman of the Tan-zim Ittehad-e-Ummat Pakistan, a little-known body from Lahore.

A transgender declared female at birth, but whose gender identity transitions to that of a man, can marry a transgender who is declared male at birth but his gender identity transitions over time to that of a female.

Qadri said the same Islamic rule will apply to a transgender declared male at birth but his gender identity transitions to that of a female. This person can marry a transgender declared female at birth who transitions over time into a male.

He, however, declared that an inter sex person, called‘ khunsae-mushkil’ in Islamic law, cannot marry at all, according to Islam.

Islam, Qadri said, also prescribed their share in inheritance. Parents who expel transgender children from home or deprive them of their share in inheritance commit a sin. He asked the government to act against such parents.

According to him, making fun of a trans gender person, even by way of hooting, considering them inferior and insulting them, is forbidden.