Pakistan Jails Lesbian Couple in Sex Change Case
LAHORE, Pakistan â A couple who sought legal protection from harassment were separated and sentenced to three years in prison yesterday for lying to a Pakistani judge that surgery had turned one partner into a man.
The case of Shumail Raj, who was born female but had breast- and uterus-removal operations 16 years ago, and Shahzina Tariq has raised issues of homosexuality and transsexuality largely taboo in this conservative Muslim society.
The couple, who married last year, had approached the Lahore High Court for protection against harassment by Ms. Tariq's relatives. They said they wed to protect Ms. Tariq from being sold into marriage to pay off her uncle's gambling debts.
Court-appointed doctors who examined Ms. Raj ruled the earlier operations were not complete and that Ms. Raj was still a woman. The couple said they had lied about 31-year-old Ms. Raj's gender because they were in love and wanted to live together. Ms. Raj, who has a closecropped beard, has expressed a desire to go abroad for surgery to become male.
"There are certainly laws to deal with perjury, so they deserve due punishment," said Hina Jillani, head of the Legal Aid Center of the nongovernment Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. "But what I believe is that they should have been given some more leniency. Since our society sees such relationships as immoral and illegal, the couple certainly has this pressure on them. That is why they lied to the court."
http://www.nysun.com/article/55377
LAHORE, Pakistan â A couple who sought legal protection from harassment were separated and sentenced to three years in prison yesterday for lying to a Pakistani judge that surgery had turned one partner into a man.
The case of Shumail Raj, who was born female but had breast- and uterus-removal operations 16 years ago, and Shahzina Tariq has raised issues of homosexuality and transsexuality largely taboo in this conservative Muslim society.
The couple, who married last year, had approached the Lahore High Court for protection against harassment by Ms. Tariq's relatives. They said they wed to protect Ms. Tariq from being sold into marriage to pay off her uncle's gambling debts.
Court-appointed doctors who examined Ms. Raj ruled the earlier operations were not complete and that Ms. Raj was still a woman. The couple said they had lied about 31-year-old Ms. Raj's gender because they were in love and wanted to live together. Ms. Raj, who has a closecropped beard, has expressed a desire to go abroad for surgery to become male.
"There are certainly laws to deal with perjury, so they deserve due punishment," said Hina Jillani, head of the Legal Aid Center of the nongovernment Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. "But what I believe is that they should have been given some more leniency. Since our society sees such relationships as immoral and illegal, the couple certainly has this pressure on them. That is why they lied to the court."
http://www.nysun.com/article/55377
If they want to do this, let em.
