A GROUP of clerics in Pakistan has declared marriage between transgender individuals permissible in Islam, saying they have a right to be married in Muslim ceremonies, ac- cording to a copy of a religious edict obtained on Monday (27).
Transgender people also have full rights under Islamic inheritance law, the Tanzeem
Ittehad-i-UmmatPakistan, a little-knownclerical body in Lahore, said in its fatwa.
“It is permissible for a transgender person with male indications on his body to marry a transgender person with female indications on her body,” said the document, signed by 50 clerics and issued on Sunday (26).
“Also, normal men and women can also marry such transgender people.”
Transgender people are, sometimes venerated in the South Asian tradition that accords spiritual powers to eunuchs and others who fall outside traditional gender norms.
Although the Lahore clerics’ fatwa is not legally binding, it also recommended that people consider harassment of trans- gender people a crime.
