By Daniel Williams

March 17 (Bloomberg) — To the Egyptian government, to her doctors, and especially to herself, Sally Mursi is a woman. To al-Azhar University, the most prestigious Islamic school in Egypt and the Middle East, she’s a man.

Twenty-one years ago, Mursi, 43, went through a sex-change operation as she was about to enter her fourth year at al-Azhar’s medical school, where classes are segregated by gender under Muslim traditions of piety. Al-Azhar officials expelled her, saying she couldn’t go to the men’s classes because she was impersonating a woman — or to the women’s classes because she was actually a man.

Since then, al-Azhar has refused to abide by repeated court orders to readmit Mursi, filing appeals. The contest has become a battle between civil law and religious fiat, reflecting conflicting attitudes about sexuality in an increasingly pious country.

For Mursi, the struggle is a singular and lonely quest for self-worth as she challenges a major Islamic institution and copes with public curiosity.

“Mursi is suffering from being the first Egyptian transsexual to go public, combined with the fact that Egypt has not worked out the relation between state and religion,” said Hossam Baghat, 29, legal officer for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent civil-rights organization.

Two years ago, Ali Gomaa, al-Azhar’s top religious official, issued a decree describing Mursi as corrupt and unfit “to live among men or women.” The edict hit all the newspapers, with photos of Mursi as a belly dancer — a job she took to make money after her expulsion.

‘Guise of a Woman’

Then al-Azhar lawyers sent her a letter with “to the person in the guise of a woman” on the envelope. The letter went to the wrong address, and suddenly neighbors who didn’t know Sally was once male shunned her. Little boys shouted vulgar catcalls when she went outside, she said in an interview.

“I am sure that I will never be admitted to al-Azhar. No matter. I was created by God, and what I have done is between me and God. I am a good person. I have to clear my name. This is a case of finding respect as a human being.”

In the Muslim Middle East, the issue of transsexuality is far from settled. Kuwait’s parliament passed a law in 2007 that makes it a crime to imitate or dress like the opposite sex. Iran’s government, by contrast, subsidizes sex-change operations, considering transsexuality a medical condition.

If not for the publicity, Mursi would probably attract little attention on the streets of Cairo. She dresses in modest Islamic clothing: a head scarf, long sleeves and slacks to cover what the pious consider immodest.

Suicide Attempt

She originally applied to medical school in 1985 partly to comprehend herself. From adolescence, she felt she was a woman, despite her sexual organs. She once slit her wrists in despair.

Mursi went through three years of psychiatric care before beginning hormone treatment. Her doctors issued a report declaring her fit for a sex change as a person alienated from his biological sex. When the operation to remove her male genitals was complete, the government gave Mursi documents that declared her female. Mohammed Abdullah Mursi became Sally in the eyes of bureaucratic Egypt.

When she reappeared at al-Azhar in 1988, however, the disciplinary committee summoned her, said she was deformed and told her she couldn’t go to classes. That began a series of lawsuits and countersuits that culminated two years ago in a court order that al-Azhar must let Sally in.

‘Exile, Isolation’

After she won, Gomaa, 55, who is also Egypt’s senior Islamic legal authority, issued his decree in favor of the university, saying that “exile, isolation and similar methods” were the way to deal with Mursi. Gomaa’s teachings are widely followed in Egypt, where many people seek Islamic-based advice on everyday affairs.

Al-Azhar appealed to annul the order; a hearing is set for May 6. The university’s lawyer, Ali Abdul Kader, 47, said the thousand-year-old school abides by Islamic, not secular, law.

“Al-Azhar exists to spread Islamic teaching. How can it accept a homosexual? And a belly dancer?” Mursi is simply a eunuch, he said, and a homosexual to boot, all in breach of Islam.

He was sitting in a courtroom with Mursi awaiting the latest hearing on another lawsuit: She is suing al-Azhar for defamation. He chatted amiably, even bawdily, with her.

“You know Sally, if you had kept your equipment, you could have had sextuplets,” he joked. “We men are trying to find ways, you know, to make ours bigger. You get rid of yours.”

Mursi laughed lustily. “Let’s date,” she answered.

Suspect Roundup

For all the mirth, there is intolerance in Egypt toward both transsexuals and gays. Police occasionally round up suspected homosexuals, scan their mobile phones and detain anyone whose number appears in the directory. The country’s professional medical union — dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that wants to institute Islamic law in Egypt — forbade sex- change operations six years ago.

Heba Kotb, who is the Middle East’s only television sex adviser, asserted in an interview that the Muslim religion excludes transsexuality as a medical condition and considers it an expression of homosexuality — and therefore sinful.

“No one is free to choose one’s own sex,” said Kotb, 41. “You have to accept what you have. He did this to himself and has to pay. I can’t bring myself to call him her.”

Sally’s case “is rare, but it speaks to which law rules in Egypt: the government’s or the religious,” said Mamdouh Nakhla, 44, a lawyer from the Kalema Center for Human Rights who is representing Mursi. “It is unusual that a court would take on al-Azhar. It is to Sally’s credit that she is willing to fight.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Williams in Cairo at dwilliams41@bloomberg.net

Source: Bloomberg

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