Transsexuals in Kuwait: Criminals or victims?

By Hassan A. Bari – Kuwait Times

The term ‘transsexual’ (third gender or she-male as they are locally known) is often mistaken for homosexuality in the Arab world and is considered highly sinful in Islam. This is why most Arab transsexuals, especially men, prefer keeping a low profile. In some Arab countries, they can face jail sentences for dressing or acting like the opposite sex. In some cases they can even be punished or killed by their families.

It is far easier for a woman to have a sex change operation and become a man. For instance, the recent Yemeni case of Nabila who discovered after a two-year marriage that she had been born male with a deformed masculine reproductive organ that had been reversed into her body since birth. On the other hand, a man who becomes a woman is seen to have dishonored the family since women are more vulnerable than men in the Arab world.

Locally, In January 2003, the first case of its kind in Kuwait, an unnamed transsexual submitted papers to the court proving that she had a sex-change operation and asked for a legal gender change to become a female. In April 2004, in an unprecedented ruling, a Kuwaiti court ruled that a 25-year-old man who underwent a sex-change surgery could be officially considered a woman. The judges were apparently guided by a religious edict allowing gender change if there are medical reasons for it, according to an
Al-Azhar fatwa (religious edict). The ruling was approved by a higher court before it was finalized.

In an attempt to ‘protect its youth’ in June 2008, the Kuwaiti government stepping up a campaign to ‘rid’ the country of gay and transsexual citizens. This came after Kuwait’s Parliament passed a law criminalizing ‘imitating the appearance of the opposite sex’ in December the previous year.

The amendment states that “any person committing an indecent act in a public place, or imitating the appearance of a member of the opposite sex, shall be subject to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding KD 1,000.” Kuwait does not allow transgender people to change their legal identity to match the gender they live, or to adapt their physical appearance through gender reassignment surgery.

As a result of the new dress-code passed in December 2007, 14 transsexuals were arrested and reportedly ill-treated in detention, according to the Human Rights Watch. All of those detained were held in the Tahla Prison, where police and prison guards reportedly subjected the detainees to physical and psychological abuse.

Reportedly, according to prison authorities, the ‘confused men’ were held in solitary confinement and their heads were shaved as a punishment. A number of them later met with several parliamentarians. They handed them a petition and asked for their support because they suffered from an ‘illness.’ They complained that the current legislation does not take their psychological and physical circumstances into consideration.

His own story
I’m completely fed up with the way people gaze at us in disgust, or even with lust in many cases,” said D, a 19-year-old transsexual citizen. “I’ve never considered fleeing my home country to the West where people like me are valued or, at least, granted enough freedom to ‘live and let others be.’

D spoke to Friday Times on condition of anonymity. I overheard his conversation with another transgendered person. They kept addressing each other as girls and competed for the attention of other men in the room. I asked him whether he was born the way he was. With a pink mobile phone in his hands, clutching a small pink purse, colored eye-contact lenses, lingerie for underwear (as he told me later on), a very feminine D responded that he indeed was born ‘a normal baby boy.’ He narrated his story of being
trapped between two worlds.

Childhood
Ever since my early childhood I had a tendency to play with girls. I hated mingling with boys or men. I never liked playing with toy cars. I loved Barbie dolls ever since I was four. I have a normal sister and normal half brothers. My father is married to another woman and has divorced my mother,” he said. He added that his uncles, on his mother’s side, tried hard to change the way he acted and behaved. “They would beat me up, they shaved my head. They even hospitalized me in the Psychiatric Diseases Hos
pital and had doctors inject me with male hormones that only stiffened my skin a little bit. Deep inside, I still felt like a woman,” he emphasized.

He explained that he dresses like a woman in venues where nobody knows him. “Strangers can never tell the difference.” He admitted that deep inside, he was always attracted to men. He added that he never experienced an erection like other men, even though he has complete male reproductive organs.

I can’t reveal my true feelings because I realize that we are living in an oriental society and because I, myself, and my whole family, are religious and pray regularly. I know that this would be a sin.

Marriage is not on his to-do-list. He said he has suffered rejection and mockery ever since he was in third grade. His schoolmates used to call him ‘Gense’ (A term used in Kuwait for transsexuals), at a time when he himself did not realize the meaning of the word. “My suffering continued in school until the secondary stage, where some of my schoolmates’ parents would complain about my presence in the same school with their kids. “The likes of him will spoil our kids,” he said, quoting the parents that got
him kicked out of the school.

When asked whether he was on any female hormones, he said that he got fed up with his family’s attempt to straighten him and started using hormones to help him grow breasts and have a more complete feminine appearance. “People hate non-determined genders, that is why I decided to look and act more like a woman; to avoid people’s sarcasm and disgust,” he stressed.

He is quick to point out that undergoing a sex change surgery is inconceivable to him and would be against Allah’s will. He claimed to know 25 transgendered individuals in Kuwait who have had sex change operations. He noted that finally, his family conceded to his choice and started to accept him as he is.

Trouble with authority
Some policemen give us hell based on the law passed by the Parliament,” he said. He claimed that when he is stopped at a check-points, or by police patrols, some policemen ask him for his mobile phone number or ask him to go somewhere to ‘have fun together.’

We are not criminals or drug dealers to be arrested in such a humiliating manner,” he said. “I gave up driving my own car to avoid such harassment.” He pointed out that boyish girls are lucky compared to ‘she-males’ like him. “Some guys tried to kidnap me recently, but I managed to escape,” he said.

D said that he hopes he will be able to finish a training course and get employment. “I know many transsexuals working in Kuwait and I will be no different,” he added. He expressed regret about the way people view his case and force him to disguise himself as a man when going to work or to the barber. “I urge officials to reconsider our rights. Many of us are fleeing our beloved homeland, but I won’t,” he stressed.

Psychologist’s viewpoint
I consulted Dr. Saeed Al-Jilani, a psychiatrist at the psychiatric diseases hospital, about what caused the spread of this phenomena. “There are many factors causing this problem,” he started, noting that some transsexuals were sexually abused as children. He added that others have hormone disorders or physical deformities, like hermaphrodites who possess both male and female reproductive organs.

There are other social reasons behind this phenomena, such as drug addiction, parental oppression, family disputes, being raised by a single divorced or widowed parent, being raised around females in the absence of a father or being brought up wrongly,” he said. “I believe that the main reason behind these cases is that people are not religious enough and not following Islamic regulations in various aspects of their lives,” he emphasized.

When asked whether he has been able to cure any of his gender orientation disordered patients, Dr. Jilani said that he tended to five and that in most cases he had problems dealing with them. “I noticed that I was more shy when discussing the case than the patient himself,” he added. He noted that the first step towards a cure was the need for the patient to realize his illness and express a sincere wish to be treated. “Most of them are actually content with their status quo,” he said. He pointed out that
most of the cases he tended to were drug-addicted transsexuals seeking help for their addiction.

Commenting on D’s case, Dr. Jilani stressed that since D only has a ‘vegetative’ masculine organ, without a trace of a feminine hidden one, he needed a tri-partite treatment strategy. “He needs a psychological phase of therapy to help him get rid of his feminine feelings, another phase involving the use of masculine hormones to help his body retain its masculine appearance, and medical treatment in the final phase to boost his organ’s vitality and effectiveness in performing its normal function, provided h
e himself wants to do so,” he said.

In Islam
Sheikh Ahmed Hoja, who is a post graduate student studying the prophet’s (PBUH) traditions and Hadith and who works as a Moazen with the ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs said that transsexuals and hermaphrodites existed even during the time of prophet Mohammed (PBUH). “One of them actually worked for the Prophet (PBUH) as a domestic assistant to his wives. He was considered harmless until he expressed an opinion about the beauty of the women, which ended his term in serving the prophet’s household,” h
e explained.

According to Islam, hermaphrodites (known as khontha in Arabic) are usually born with one reproductive organ more effective than the other. In such cases, it is permissible to operate on the patient and change his or her gender to the most dominant one,” he said. He stressed that a ‘Mokhannath’ was different. “He is a man with psychological or hormone disorder that can, as well, be treated,” the cleric said. Sheikh Ahmed agreed with Dr Jilani’s opinion that the main reason behind the phenomena was an alie
nation from religion and the practicing of its rituals.