The following story can fill in a few chapters of a juicy and dramatic soap opera; but, unbelievably so, it is a true story of a young man (woman?) who wanted to fulfill a long-awaited dream to achieve true happiness.
In the oil-rich Saudi Kingdom, a story of a young man, who had turned into a woman, has created uproar, not only due to the fact that he had changed his sex, but also because as a man, he inherited a huge amount of money from his millionaire father.
He transformed his sex only after inheriting. According to Islamic law, as a woman, he would inherit half of what a man inherits. His relatives have filed a lawsuit, accusing him of deception and asking the court to re-divide the inheritance.
A judge has provoked controversy by ruling in favor of the transsexual, whose family tried to strip him of half his inheritance after he turned into a woman, as aforesaid.
In a case that has stirred wide interest in the Saudi Kingdom, the son of the Saudi millionaire was sued by his relatives after they found out that he had secretly spent part of his father's estate on the operation to transform his sex...
Angered by the perceived disgrace he had brought upon the family, his sisters indicated that according to the country's inheritance laws he was entitled to only half as much money as when he was a man!
Now, however, the action has been dropped after a judge in Jeddah ruled that since he was male when he received the inheritance, he was entitled to keep it in full. In the future, however, he will be treated under inheritance law as a woman.
Although the ruling does not challenge Saudi men's superior status in law, the spectacle of the ”conservative judiciary” dealing with legal issues of trans-sexuality has caused a stir in the sandy kingdom.
Ever since "Ahmad", as he is known, first confided anonymously to the popular Saudi women's magazine, Sayidaty ("My lady"), his story has dominated talk in the coffee shops of Jeddah and Riyadh, The Telegraph reported.
Some of the kingdom's religious scholars have also offered their opinion in the controversial matter. "There is no mention in the Quran of a "she-male'," Sheikh Ahmad Abdul Qadir Al Maabi, an expert in inheritance law, told Sayidaty.
"The features of both sexes cannot be in one person. How could a child's sex not be known immediately at birth when the signs are obvious?"
On the subject of inheritance, he said, “The inheritance of a ‘she-male’ should be as follows: Inheritance is divided according to the obvious signs and characteristics of the person. If they indicate that the person is male, then he is given a male’s inheritance. If the signs indicate that the person is female, then a female’s inheritance is given.”
According to Sayidaty, Ahmad was well aware from a very young age that he felt more akin to his sisters than to his brother. "Even as a child, I felt that I was not a normal boy and that something was wrong with me," he said. "I preferred to be with girls and to play with them."
Bullied at secondary school and fed up with parental advice to "toughen up", he convinced his father to send him abroad for education. During his university years in America, he developed "female bodily features" and began to dress in women's clothes.
After U.S. doctors told him, "You're a female, not a male," he considered a sex-change operation. When he asked his father for the necessary money, however, he said that he would not recognize him as his daughter and would cut him out of his inheritance altogether.
His father died shortly afterwards and, after receiving his full inheritance, Ahmad returned to America where he continued with the operation. "It was much simpler than I had feared. I began to live, for the first time, what was a normal life. I felt that a huge burden had been lifted from me," he said.
As a woman, he got a job with an American computer company and was planning further studies when the September 11 attacks made him feel that he was in the wrong place. He cut his hair short, wiped off his make-up and returned to Saudi Arabia as a man.
The trauma caused by the death of his mother not long after his arrival prompted him to confess all at a specially convened family meeting. "I told them everything and the meeting degenerated into a screaming match with threats and accusations hurled at me," he said.
His sister and her husband applied for the family estate - thought to total millions of dollars - to be re-divided, with his share cut by half.
"They filed a suit even though I am still considered a man and am legally a male in Saudi Arabia," said Ahmad.
Ahmad's family has refused to comment publicly. Ashraf Al Saraj, however, a lawyer acting for Ahmad, said that they dropped the case at a preliminary hearing when the judge made it clear that the court was likely to rule against them. Sayidaty tried to speak to Ahmad’s brother and his sisters but all of them refused to talk about the situation. Nor would they admit that they had a brother who had changed his sex even though the case has been widely publicized.
It is interesting to point out that in Iran, for example, Mullahs have approved sex change operations despite their beliefs, according to a New York Times August report.
Just after Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979, the country’s ruling clerics classed transsexuals and transvestites with gays and lesbians, who were condemned by Islam and faced flogging under Iran's penal code.
But these days, Iran's clerics, who dominate the judiciary, accept sex-change operations. To obtain legal permission for a sex-change and new birth certificates, applicants must provide medical proof of gender-identity disorder. Some Muslim clerics even recommend sex-change operations to those troubled by their sexuality.
The issue of sex-change operations is controversial in Western countries as well as in the Arab world. However, it seems there is certain openness to the matter in recent years and people who have undergone such changes are more inclined to publicly speak about it – prompting further awareness throughout society.
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
