Islamic Tolerance

May 26, 2007:

Justice Sharif observed that the same-sex marriage case was the first of its kind to come before the judiciary in the history of the subcontinent, adding that the court would see the matter through to its logical conclusion.

May 29, 2007:

Shumail, a transsexual who married a woman, expressed dissatisfaction over the three-year sentence and said that she and Shahzina would take any measures necessary to make things okay.

According to this blog article (in Urdu), they each get three years in jail and a 10,000 rupee fine. The comments there are precious.

I'll translate a few later.

The following are a few selected translations from just the first page.

Sana, Karachi, Pakistan. It is shameful that such events are occurring in Pakistan -- an Islamic country. We are walking in the steps of non-Muslims.

Riaz, Emirates. This is not correct in any way.

Farhat Iqbal, Lahore, Pakistan. I support the court because if we allow practices that go counter to Islamic teachings, then that would obliterate our society.

Nasir, Dubai, Emirates. This is a shameful matter; these two should be shot.

Muhammmad Kamran, Karachi, Pakistan. These girls got too little punishment. There should have been, at least, life in jail.

Comments

[Josh Scholar]

Unfortunately Babelfish doesn't translate Urdu comments.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

Isaac types up the translation.

Background music and audio: Here he comes to save the day!

Isaac thinks: Finally those 10 brutal years of Urdu-learning pay off!

[Marti Abernathey]

I'm curious about transsexuality in Islam. In Iran the Ayatollah Khomeini approved of sexual reassignment surgery with those suffering from gender identity disorder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsexuality_in_Iran

Is this possibly a Sunni and Shi'a issue? I'm wondering why there's so much variance in how transgender people are treated.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

Frankly, I don't know much about Islamic rules regarding transsexuality (assuming there are any).

Though, as this case from Pakistan shows, a negative precedent has been set in law. Not recognizing the marriage in such cases is one thing but to charge heavy fines and put people behind bars (for a victimless crime) is insane.

But then sanity is rare in that part of the world.