Pakistan has taken a huge step forward in LGBT rights
A group of Pakistani clerics have declared that marriage between transgender people is allowed under Islam, a step for the LGBT community that rivals or indeed outpaces the progress made in many Western countries. Additionally, the Tanzeem Ittehad-i-Ummat Pakistan, a clerical body in the city of Lahore have declared that transgender people have the right to be buried following Muslim ceremonies. This information was given in a copy of a religious edict to Reuters that also stated transgender people are allowed to enjoy full rights of inheritance, and parents who deprived their children from this right were “inviting the wrath of God”. As the ruling states,
“It is permissible for a transgender person with male indications on his body to marry a transgender person with female indications on her body. Also, normal men and women can also marry such transgender people as have clear indications on their body.”
The document, signed by 50 clerics, did not specify what these ‘indications’ are; although it does state that those carrying signs of both sexes do not enter into this ruling. Nevertheless, Pakistan, one of the few countries created in the name of Islam, and an Islamic republic since 1956, declared equal rights for transgender citizens since 2012, and one year later gave the right to vote. These rights may not seem like much to many, but considering the strictness of Islamic law (Sharia) and where many Western countries still stand (such as the U.S. and its bathroom bills fight), this is huge. Of course, not everything is great for the LGBT community in Pakistan; marriage is still not allowed for homosexual couples, although male homosexuals are also not charged with anti-sodomomy laws anymore.
Inside Pakistan, transgender people are often segregated and forced into begging, prostitution or dancing to earn a living. Just last month, Alisha, a 23-year-old transgender woman died when she was shot and doctors refused to treat her in a hospital in Peshawar. Her death sparked voluminous debate over LGBT rights in Pakistan, specifically those for transgender people. And although the clerics ruling (fatwa) is not legally binding, it is an important step for sexual diversity inside a strict and conservative country—bearing in mind the weight clerics have. In addition, the group has also asked harassment to be consider a crime under Islam. As it stated,
“Making noises at transgender people, making fun of them, teasing them, or thinking of them as inferior is against sharia law, because such an act amounts to objecting to one of Allah’s creations, which is not correct.”
Now, the transgender community and LGBT activists are asking the government to take further action on this and introduce legislation on it. Transgender rights worker Almas Bobby told BBC
“We are glad that somebody’s talked about us too. By Sharia we already had the right [to marry], but unless measures are taken to remove the misconceptions about us in society, the condition of our community will not be changed.”
Without governmental intervention and the right legislation, not much will change. Yet, the importance of religious clerics in a country like Pakistan gives the LGBT community and transgender people the hope of a more tolerant society.
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