What is it about?
Transgender rights in Egypt are governed mainly by Islamic Sharia. Egypt's Al-Azhar, one of the most prominent Sunni institutes in the world, has issued several religious rulings declaring Transgender people are mentally ill people who should be treated with therapy, not surgical and hormonal interventions. Subsequently, health policy and judicial opinions have shifted to reflect Al-Azhar's outdated position. The article examines how Al-Azhar's position was developed and negatively impacted transgender rights in the country.
Featured Image
Photo by Masjid MABA on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The article is a pioneer in the field of transgender studies in Arabic-speaking countries, and it is the first of its kind to examine the issue independently from LGBT+ and general gender studies in Egypt and the region. It contains rare judicial and Islamic records that have not been published before and provides rare insights into the world of Islamic transgender law. This paper is part of a bigger research project I am working on that would fill the gap in transgender research in the Middle East and North Africa region, so hopefully, more research documents will be published soon.
Perspectives
I myself am a transgender person from Egypt before being a researcher or an activist. I have always noticed a lack of data and research on issues that impact us as a transgender community. This caused a lot of confusion when it came to litigating, designing programming, or advocacy on transgender issues in the country, as those issues were always overshadowed by the greater LGBT+ rights movement, which is mainly dominated by cis-queers. Thus, this article is the first attempt to fill the gap in transgender research in Egypt and the region and to assist the transgender movement in better understanding laws and policies impacting the issues they are working on. The document is not only academic in that sense but can also function as an advocacy document for my transgender colleagues.
Nora Noralla
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Gender Trouble in the Land of the Nile: Transgender Identities, the Judiciary and Islam in Egypt, Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law Online, July 2023, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/22112987-20230052.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Transgender rights in Islam
Brief presentation on transgender rights in Muslim-majority countries
Cairo 52 launches a strategic litigation petition on the transgender right to health in Egypt
A strategic litigation case the author is currently working on, on the right to health for transgender people in Egypt
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
