{"id":1588,"date":"2012-10-12T20:09:19","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T00:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hlpr\/?p=1588"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:22:31","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:22:31","slug":"malaysias-transsexuals-lose-court-battle-to-dress-as-they-choose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2012\/10\/12\/malaysias-transsexuals-lose-court-battle-to-dress-as-they-choose\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaysia\u2019s Transsexuals Lose Court Battle to Dress as They Choose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By\u00a0Sushila Rao<\/p>\n<p><\/em>The first ever attempt to challenge the constitutionality of an Islamic\u00a0<em>Syariah<\/em>(Shariah) ban on cross-dressing has been dismissed by the secular High Court in the Negeri Sembilan province of Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p>Article 3 of the Constitution of Malaysia\u00a0establishes Islam as the \u201creligion of the Federation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Under the \u201cdual\u201d legal system ordained by Article 121(1A) of the Constitution of Malaysia, \u201csecular\u201d laws apply to all citizens and Islamic or Shariah laws apply only to those professing the Islamic faith (about 2\/3rds of a total of 29 million Malaysians are Muslims). \u00a0Penalties for cross-dressing are determined by individual states.\u00a0 In Negeri Sembilan, where the case was heard, convicted offenders may be imprisoned for up to 6 months, fined as much as $325 or both.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nFour Muslim transsexuals had\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20121015095601\/http:\/\/news.asiaone.com\/News\/AsiaOne%2BNews\/Malaysia\/Story\/A1Story20121011-377063.html\">challenged the Islamic law<\/a>\u00a0that bars them from dressing as women, on the grounds of non-discrimination and freedom of expression.\u00a0They allege that the court\u2019s unfavorable ruling sets a dangerous precedent, in as much as it stipulates that state-enacted Islamic law overrides fundamental liberties guaranteed under the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling can also be perhaps misconstrued as a judicial endorsement of the ordeals faced by Malaysia\u2019s transsexual community on a daily basis, including police and societal harassment. \u00a0This further compounds the problems of stigmatization caused by the criminalization on sodomy in Malaysia, with a maximum penalty of 20 years of imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>As regards non-Muslims, there is currently no legislation permitting or even governing the legal change of gender by transsexuals.\u00a0 The legal vacuum has led to a morass of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20121015095601\/http:\/\/www.malaysianbar.org.my\/gender_issues\/jeffrey_jessie_recognising_transexuals_by_honey_tan_lay_ean.html#_ftn6\">conflicting judicial decisions.<\/a>\u00a0In 2003, a court decision permitted a transsexual woman to change the gender indicated in her National Registration Identity Card, which must be carried by Malayasians at all times.\u00a0 However, in another case in 2005, in another case, the court refused to amend the gender of a transsexual in the identity card, and said that the litigant\u2019s remedy lay in appealing to Parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By\u00a0Sushila Rao The first ever attempt to challenge the constitutionality of an Islamic\u00a0Syariah(Shariah) ban on cross-dressing has been dismissed by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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