Bahrani Lawyer Faouzia Janahi

February 12, 2008

Bahrani lawyer revealed receiving several calls from gulf and arab countries from people asking her to adopt their sex-change cases in their home countries’ courtss. The Lawyer, Faouzia Janahi, said that she is currently handling a case in Bahrain’s courts to reach granting of sex/identity change for a Bahrani girl named Zainab Rabei (33 year old) transitioned to male and named Hussein Rabei. Janahi had received another call from a Saudi girl (38 year old) asking her to take their case to prove she is male, and has refused to reveal about 2 more cases in two other gulf countries.

The Bahrani lawyer asserted that she had previously won a similar case for a girl who transitioned to a man in 2005. However, she requires medical reports from accredited hospitals before getting into the procedures of the case, and refuses to take requests from homosexuals of either gender.

Janahi (who’s been in the career for 9 years) takes pride in the fact that she in the first lawyer in the Arab world to win a case of this type, but she is not the first to take up such a case in court. She was preceded by her Kuwaiti colleague Adel Yehya who introduced 13 sex change cases for his clients, but the Kuwaiti courts denied all the cases after looking into it.

Considerations for Sex-Change

Issa Amin, the Bahrani doctor who examinated Hussein Rabei, commented that “sexual mutilation” in such cases are divided into two groups, “internal and external” mutilations. The “consultant in urinary tract” explained to “Al-Arabiyya Net” that the sex change operation is subject to several considerations, such as Hormonal, Chromosomal and mental state. The cases requesting sex-change are to be seen by four doctors; “Urinary tract doctor”, Endocrinologist, and a Plastic Surgeon, then a psychiatrist to ensure their true needs for this surgery, before being examined by a Coroner for their opinion which is requested by the court, but Coroner is not obligated to give an opinion.

Dr. Amin reveals a case he has treated 20 years prior, a girl that suffered from “masculine mutilation in her voice and body appearance” but he was able to “return her to her normal situation quitely and away from spotlights”.

The lawyer Janahi said she is currently giving legal consultations to girls from the gulf, and another in Morocco, communicating with them via telephone and the internet. Janahi also expressed her willingness to take similar cases in the gulf, but she apologized for not doing the same in Saudi Arabia, assuring that she is coordinating with Saudi laywers to take the case of the girl who called her about this issue.

A girl who was married transitions to a man

It was decided for the Bahrani Supreme Civil Court to look into the case and reports of Hussein Rabei on February 20, 2008 who has already already had two “change operations to remove the breast tissue in the chest area, and to enlarge the male genitalia which suffered atrophy. Rabei has gone through the experience of marriage when he was a girl, but his marriage failed because he always had the feeling “of his manhood”.

Janahi has showed her optimism in Hussein getting an official acknowledgment of his identity change on official documents. Besides the medical reports, Janahi counts on the Fatwa which she received from both the Sunni and Shiite Shariaa Courts and the Fatwa from the Shiite scholar Al-sayed Ali Al-Sistani whom Hussein received from him –according to his lawyer– a “Shariaa Order” for his sex change after the “considered reports he produced”.

Faouzia Janahi had encountered wide opposition about her taking a case such as this one before people started to accept the matter. In a dialog with “Al-Arabiyya Net”, Janahi says she had experienced social opposition at first “due to some people’s beliefs that I will help sexual deviants (homosexuals)”.

Denying “sexually deviant (homosexual)” cases

Janahi talked about refraining from adopting “sexual deviant cases”, and said she has received a call from “Booya?” and from another male who also wants to change his sex, but she refused “because of lack of required medical reports”.

Dr. Amin, on the other hand says he refused 3 cases for girls and another for a guy due to the same previous reasons, and has directed them to consult a psychiatrist. He points out that the “sex-changer” may not be able to give birth “or even enjoy the sexual intercourse like a normal person would”, explaining that the matter has to do with “the genitalia which is restored during the surgery which doesnt work as the normal cases”.

“No Gulf or Arab statistics as to the number of those congenitally defective or the deviants who are seeking to change their sex, due to the sensitivity of the subject of such cases in the Arab world. But the subject has taken a new dimension after success of several surgeries people had performed in East-Asian hospitals, and after courts accepting to look in these cases”.

Original Arabic Source: Ashams.com Article

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