An Islamic scholar belonging to the Barelvi school of thought issued a religious decree (fatwa) in Pakistan allowing transmen and transwomen to marry and calls it “haraam” (forbidden) to insult or humiliate them.
According to a report in Pakistani Newspaper The Tribune, the fatwa, issued by Mufti Muhammad Imran Hanfi Qadri on the request of Chairman of Tanzim Ittehade Ummat Pakistan Muhammad Ziaul Haq Naqashbandi, states: “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 Imran also said that according to Islam, transgender people have a share in the property as well. He furrther said that insulting them or making fun of them was forbidden. Funeral prayers for transgender persons too would be held according to rituals for any man or woman, and such people are to observe prayers, fasting, zakat and Hajj like other muslims.
The cleric exhorted Pakistani Government for proper legislation to safeguard the rights of the community.
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