The Nexus between Gender-Confirming Surgery and Illness: Legal-Hermeneutical Examinations of Four Islamic Fatwas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Muslim jurists have issued several fatwas (Islamic legal opinions) permitting
gender-confirming surgery (GCS) for various groups of intersex and/or transgender people.
However, these fatwas have been critiqued for conceiving of intersex and transgender individuals
as diseased people who need treatment for an illness. By closely examining the legal-hermeneutical
arguments behind four widely cited fatwas on GCS—the fatwas of the Islamic
Fiqh Council of the Muslim World League, the National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs,
Shaykh Tạ ntạ̄ w¯ı, and Ayatollah Khomeini—this article argues that although the objection to the
medicalization of the recipients ofGCSin such fatwas is mostly correct, it is not always accurate,
as it is not the case in Khomeini’s fatwa. The present study, based on the legal-hermeneutical
reasoning established in modern Shiʿi juristic scholarship, proposes a discursive space within
Khomeini’s fatwa that suggests that intersex and transgender individuals are not people who
suffer from physical or mental illness, although they should be permitted to undergo GCS if
they wish.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)359-386
JournalJournal of Middle East Women's Studies
Volume18
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2022

Keywords

  • transgender
  • intersex
  • gender-confirming surgery
  • illness
  • fatwa

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Nexus between Gender-Confirming Surgery and Illness: Legal-Hermeneutical Examinations of Four Islamic Fatwas'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this