The real 'great shame' behind transsexualism
Jeswan KaurPublished: Jan 5, 2010 5:35 AM | Updated: Jan 5, 2010 6:21 AM
A loud-mouthed and sexist politician marries a television actress and it becomes coffee-shop talk and ends there. This is despite the fact that he had, a day earlier, denied the speculation.
However, when on foreign land a transsexual courageously embraces life and finds the love of her life, it becomes a shameful news. What a paradox, typical of Malaysia!
A loud-mouthed and sexist politician marries a television actress and it becomes coffee-shop talk and ends there. This is despite the fact that he had, a day earlier, denied the speculation.
However, when on foreign land a transsexual courageously embraces life and finds the love of her life, it becomes a shameful news. What a paradox, typical of Malaysia!
Transsexual Fatine was reportedly to be deported to Malaysia from Britain, which had refused her a permanent visa on technical grounds.
Immigration department director-general Abdul Rahman Othman shot his mouth off saying “Fatine will be punished for bringing great shame on the country”.
The politician, Kinabatangan MP Bung Raden Mokhtar, is perhaps content, having wed a woman he loves. And he is not being judged, although the actress is his second wife. No one feels he has brought great shame of any kind. It is another matter what his wife thinks.
In Fatine’s case, all she did was to go in search of a happy life abroad and she found it with the man she later went on to marry. How has that brought “great shame to the country”?
It is evident that Abdul Rahman has played judge by deciding that Fatine’s act of marrying is shameful, for she is a transsexual or a mak nyah.
What has Fatine done wrong? Would matters have been different if she had won the Nobel Prize or the Booker’s Prize or made an award-winning film?
Would Abdul Rahman still accuse her of bringing “great shame to the country”? If the answer is No, then clearly Malaysia is a land where hypocrisy is the order of the day. Or maybe Abdul Rahman is in denial over the existence of transsexualism, gay and lesbian rights.
He is like those parents who refuse to acknowledge the conflict and trauma faced by their transsexual children or to give them much-needed support. Disowning a child who is transsexual, gay or lesbian is an act of cowardice, of not wanting to accept the truth and not standing by the child.
It is frustrating that transsexuals like Fatine (right) are deemed ‘untouchables’ in Malaysia. They do not enjoy respect and are social outcasts. They are often victims of physical abuse and verbal harassment by the police, public and religious authorities who zealously advocate counselling via religion to ‘cure’ all issues pertaining to sexuality.
In 1983, a fatwa or religious decree was declared banning sex reassignment surgery (SRS) for Muslims. As a result, many Muslim transsexuals were forced to go abroad for the surgery which comes at an exorbitant cost.
Muslim transsexuals arrested by the religious authorities and charged in the Syariah Court can be fined up to RM1,000 and or jailed.
It appears that there is no regard for the provision made by Article 8(2) of the federal constitution which prohibits discrimination based on gender.
The immunity provided by the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ratified by Malaysia in 1995, does not hold any meaning for the Malaysian authorities, either.
Ayatollah’s stance
Fatine’s case is not the first in Malaysia, nor will it be the last. In February 2005, a court allowed a non-Muslim male transsexual to change the gender on her identity card after she showed evidence of a SRS.
But later that year, the government rejected the recognition and branded as invalid the marriage of a couple where the wife is a non-Muslim man who had undergone SRS. This was regarded instead as a same-sex union.
In 2007, then Terengganu Welfare and Islam Hadhari Development Committee chairperson Rosol Wahid said rehabilitation centres for cross-dressers would be set up when the situation is deemed out of control. It is most unfortunate that Rosol cannot distinguish between transvestites (cross-dressers) and transsexuals.
Islamic cleric Mohamad Asri Zainul Abidin, supposedly one of Malaysia’s most moderate leaders, opined that transsexuals should be fined or jailed if counselling proves ineffective.
“We must try to reform them and give them advice. We must not allow them to stray. Imagine if this world was filled with transsexuals - what would happen to the human race?” he had asked.
It is disappointing and frustrating that even a moderate leader has failed to understand the truth behind transsexualism.
The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the undisputed authority in the Islamic republic of Iran, has put them all to shame.
In the early 1980s, he issued a fatwa permitting SRS, as the Quran does not forbid this. And how did this miracle happen? He was persuaded by a 33-year-old pre-operative transsexual to do so.
It was Khomeini who served well what Gandhi said about religion: ‘A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion’.
(This article is dedicated to Ash Thunderbolt, Nov 14, 2009- Dec 3, 2009.)
JESWAN KAUR is a journalist who spent many years writing for the mainstream media before deciding to 'break free' and put pen to paper to focus on and fight for issues that are conveniently marginalised by the powers-that-be.
However, when on foreign land a transsexual courageously embraces life and finds the love of her life, it becomes a shameful news. What a paradox, typical of Malaysia!
Transsexual Fatine was reportedly to be deported to Malaysia from Britain, which had refused her a permanent visa on technical grounds.
Immigration department director-general Abdul Rahman Othman shot his mouth off saying “Fatine will be punished for bringing great shame on the country”.
The politician, Kinabatangan MP Bung Raden Mokhtar, is perhaps content, having wed a woman he loves. And he is not being judged, although the actress is his second wife. No one feels he has brought great shame of any kind. It is another matter what his wife thinks. In Fatine’s case, all she did was to go in search of a happy life abroad and she found it with the man she later went on to marry. How has that brought “great shame to the country”?
It is evident that Abdul Rahman has played judge by deciding that Fatine’s act of marrying is shameful, for she is a transsexual or a mak nyah.
What has Fatine done wrong? Would matters have been different if she had won the Nobel Prize or the Booker’s Prize or made an award-winning film?
Would Abdul Rahman still accuse her of bringing “great shame to the country”? If the answer is No, then clearly Malaysia is a land where hypocrisy is the order of the day. Or maybe Abdul Rahman is in denial over the existence of transsexualism, gay and lesbian rights.
He is like those parents who refuse to acknowledge the conflict and trauma faced by their transsexual children or to give them much-needed support. Disowning a child who is transsexual, gay or lesbian is an act of cowardice, of not wanting to accept the truth and not standing by the child.
It is frustrating that transsexuals like Fatine (right) are deemed ‘untouchables’ in Malaysia. They do not enjoy respect and are social outcasts. They are often victims of physical abuse and verbal harassment by the police, public and religious authorities who zealously advocate counselling via religion to ‘cure’ all issues pertaining to sexuality.In 1983, a fatwa or religious decree was declared banning sex reassignment surgery (SRS) for Muslims. As a result, many Muslim transsexuals were forced to go abroad for the surgery which comes at an exorbitant cost.
Muslim transsexuals arrested by the religious authorities and charged in the Syariah Court can be fined up to RM1,000 and or jailed.
It appears that there is no regard for the provision made by Article 8(2) of the federal constitution which prohibits discrimination based on gender.
The immunity provided by the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ratified by Malaysia in 1995, does not hold any meaning for the Malaysian authorities, either.
Ayatollah’s stance
Fatine’s case is not the first in Malaysia, nor will it be the last. In February 2005, a court allowed a non-Muslim male transsexual to change the gender on her identity card after she showed evidence of a SRS.
But later that year, the government rejected the recognition and branded as invalid the marriage of a couple where the wife is a non-Muslim man who had undergone SRS. This was regarded instead as a same-sex union.
In 2007, then Terengganu Welfare and Islam Hadhari Development Committee chairperson Rosol Wahid said rehabilitation centres for cross-dressers would be set up when the situation is deemed out of control. It is most unfortunate that Rosol cannot distinguish between transvestites (cross-dressers) and transsexuals.
Islamic cleric Mohamad Asri Zainul Abidin, supposedly one of Malaysia’s most moderate leaders, opined that transsexuals should be fined or jailed if counselling proves ineffective.“We must try to reform them and give them advice. We must not allow them to stray. Imagine if this world was filled with transsexuals - what would happen to the human race?” he had asked.
It is disappointing and frustrating that even a moderate leader has failed to understand the truth behind transsexualism.
The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the undisputed authority in the Islamic republic of Iran, has put them all to shame.
In the early 1980s, he issued a fatwa permitting SRS, as the Quran does not forbid this. And how did this miracle happen? He was persuaded by a 33-year-old pre-operative transsexual to do so.
It was Khomeini who served well what Gandhi said about religion: ‘A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion’.
(This article is dedicated to Ash Thunderbolt, Nov 14, 2009- Dec 3, 2009.)
JESWAN KAUR is a journalist who spent many years writing for the mainstream media before deciding to 'break free' and put pen to paper to focus on and fight for issues that are conveniently marginalised by the powers-that-be.
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