Controversial Film About Gay Muslims is a Labour of Love

Hearts and minds

A controversial film about gay Muslims is more a labour of love than a call to arms, finds Jeremy Kay

Thursday September 6, 2007

From the Guardian

Early on in the More4 documentary A Jihad for Love, which receives its much anticipated world premiere at the Toronto International Film festival on Sunday, a Muslim man and his two daughters are enjoying a coastal drive in South Africa. It's a happy scene, yet the easy banter belies the hardship this family has endured. The man, Mushin Hendricks, is a former imam who was cast out by his community when he declared his homosexuality. The girls' mother has since remarried, and when Hendricks asks them what they would do if he were arrested, the answer comes without hesitation. The elder child, combining filial love with the lessons of her Islamic education, says she would ask that officials spare him a protracted death by stoning, and kill him with the first rock.

Dignity and despair are woven tightly together in A Jihad for Love, a six-year endeavour by Indian film-maker Parvez Sharma that explores Islam and homosexuality. Without a distributor in the US, the film is one of the hottest tickets at the festival, and nobody knows what will happen at the first public screening. The film-makers are hoping it will be received respectfully and inspire an open-minded dialogue. That would certainly accord with Sharma's approach in making the $2m documentary, which eschews the shock-and-awe school of investigative reporting in favour of a compassionate portrait of devout Muslims struggling to reconcile their faith and sexuality.

"All the people in my film are coming out as Muslims," says the 34-year-old film-maker. "Islam is the heart of this film. They are proud to be gay, but fundamentally they're coming out as Muslims and saying they're as Muslim as anybody else, and their Islam is as true and fundamental as anybody else's."

Each of the men and women profiled in A Jihad for Love is courageous, defiant and resourceful. Mazen was one of the Cairo 52, a group arrested in May 2001 aboard a floating gay nightclub on the Nile. He was beaten, forced to stand trial twice on "habitual debauchery" charges, and sentenced to a total of four years in prison, where he was raped. He eventually moved to Paris, where we see him no longer afraid to reveal his face, making friends, moving into his own flat, and calling his mother in Egypt to say he misses her.

Maryam is a Moroccan lesbian in Paris whose lover lives in Egypt. The teachings of her faith mean she still believes she deserves to be punished for her sexuality, and it was only recently that she was able to use the term "lesbian" for the first time. "Each of the characters you see on the screen had to negotiate that relationship with the camera," Sharma says. "It has taken me years to get to know them and earn their trust."

Sharma himself had a secular upbringing in India, where "Islam was all around me". As a gay man, he was acutely aware of his country's stance on homosexuality. "And as long as I wasn't marching around and proclaiming it, things were fine. India is a culture that tolerates same-sex behaviour between men and women, but it can't be in-your-face."

After graduating from university in India and working at the Star News channel/NDTV in Asia and the BBC, he arrived in the UK to study for his masters degree - he holds three - in broadcast journalism at the University of Wales. Then he moved to the east coast of the US in late 2000, and everything changed. "My whole religious identity and the colour of my skin became an issue," Sharma says. "After 9/11, I was caught up in a climate that made gay Muslims like me a triple minority: we were facing condemnation for being gay as we had done from our own communities; we were targeted and ostracised because of the way we looked; and even within gay communities, we were regarded as exotic outsiders.

"Those forces came together and I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to start a discussion of Islam that hadn't been heard before. I feel I was called upon to make this film. This was very necessary for my being a Muslim and a gay man."

Sharma compiled 400 hours of footage from a dozen countries ranging from Iraq to Pakistan to the UK. The nature of the work placed him at considerable personal risk. He adopted hardcore guerrilla film-making tactics, pretending to be a tourist in one country, a worker for an Aids charity in another. Wherever he went, he asked friends to keep copies of footage and destroy the tapes once he had successfully smuggled the masters out of the country.

Sharma admits he thought long and hard about the title of the film, and is very clear about its message. "A very loud minority has hijacked my religion and its pulpits. To see Islam depicted every day as a faith of violence is very frustrating to me. It's something many Muslims face today: do they go with the Islam being preached by a violent minority, or do we seek the fundamentals of this religion, in which we are taught not to harm any human life? Jihad represents a life struggle, and I call myself a jihadi with pride, and so do all the others in this film. Our struggle is one of faith and understanding".

· A Jihad for Love will receive its UK premiere at the Sheffield Documentary festival, which runs from November 7-11.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

Ugandan Ethics Minister Advises Homosexuals to Emigrate; Gay Leader Insists Gays "Have Absolute Rights"

Source: The Daily Monitor

August 29, 2007: Ethics Minister Dr James Nsaba Buturo advises homosexuals to emigrate, calling their acts "shameful, abominable and un-godly." Gay leader Victor Juliet Mukasa insists gays "have absolute rights." Inside Politics' Agness Nandutu crossed the two.

What is your view on the current debate on homosexuality?

Buturo: My view is that of the majority of Ugandans. All people who have participated in this debate are denouncing the act. What else do these gays want? The message has been clear that their acts are not accepted in our society. They are wasting their time to claim that they are advocating for their rights. We shall not allow them to mislead our young generation. Shame on them. Our laws are clear, homosexuality is illegal.

If God is against homosexuality, who are we to legislate for it. We would be bringing a curse on Uganda, God forbid. They have no place in our country. They should change to a normal way of life. They should know that they are not free to do whatever they want. Homosexuality is not part of our values. As government we shall do everything possible to help them change and those who don't want to change would be arrested. We shall not act under pressure. It's nonsense to say that their acts are natural.

Mukasa: The people who are debating against our feelings do not understand what we want. Even Buturo, a government minister who is supposed to uphold the constitution by protecting our human rights has joined the religious leaders to condemn us.

They are violating our rights by inciting the public to either harm us or hate us. We are also human beings. Buturo and his followers should know that we also belong to this society. They should also know that this is our way of living, which we cannot change. We ought to be listened to and we demand our basic human rights.

We want to be free and to have peace with the rest of the society. We are not raping or defiling anybody. We are not having sex with animals. Our nature is that we are only attracted to the people of the same sex as ours and we should be given freedom. We need to have the right of belonging.

Full article...

Anti-gay Group in Uganda Hits Back at Rights Activists

By Alfred Wasike (Source: New Vision - Kampala)

August 31, 2007: A coalition of religious groups has lashed at the Human Rights Watch (HRW), accusing it of promoting homosexuality. The anti-gay group said the letter the HRW's director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights programme, Scott Long, wrote to President Museveni was based on a false assumption that homosexuals were 'born that way'.

In the August 23 letter, Long called for the reform of existing laws against homosexuality and an end to what was described as 'a long record of harassing' lesbians, gays, bisexual and trans-gender people.

However, the Interfaith Rainbow Coalition against Homosexuality in Uganda (TIRCHU) insisted that homosexuality is illegal and against Ugandan family values. The spokesperson, Pastor Martin Sempa of the Makerere University Community Church, said HRW's letter was based on a false assumption that homosexuality is innate and immutable.

"Your letter asserts that homosexuals are entitled to certain 'rights' and that these 'rights' are being violated by the enforcement of our laws but we reject this assertion," he said in a letter addressed to Long.

Sempa said the law against homosexuality protects innocent people, especially the youth who might engage in risky sexual behaviour.

The group cited the case of Benjamin Buloba who was sodomised and bled to death on October 15, 2004.

TIRCHU said homosexuality was neither innate nor immutable, adding several people had reoriented from homosexuality to heterosexuality (sexual relationship between people of a different sex). The group advised the HRW to visit the website of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (www.narth.org) for proof.

The Medical and Social Science association confirmed that homosexuality was not only unhealthy for individuals, but also for society, the group added.

According to a recent research by the Steadman Associates, 95% of Ugandans find homosexuality "repugnant and absolutely unacceptable to our culture."

TIRCHU comprises the Church of Uganda, the Catholic Church, Muslims, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Orthodox Church, the National Fellowship of Born-Again churches, the Baptist Union and the Evangelical Fellowship of Uganda.

Story sourced from the Allafrica.com website.

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HRW Letter to Ugandan President Regarding Homophobia and HIV
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What Are Three Kinds of Knowledge? - Daily Muslim Wisdom

Knowledge is of three kinds: from God, with God, of God. Knowledge of God is disclosed to all prophets and saints; it is a divine guidance and cannot be acquired. Knowledge from God is the sacred law made obligatory upon us. Knowledge with God is the knowledge of the paths and stations and the development of saints.

-Al-Hujwiri, "The Kashf al-Mahjub"

Bangladeshi Man Granted Refugee Status in Australia

GAY REFUGEE CELEBRATES VISA VICTORY by Harley Dennett

From the Sydney Star Observer - Sept. 6, 2007

Bangladeshi gay activist Motahar Hussein appears set to receive an Australian protection visa after the Refugee Review Tribunal accepted he was homosexual and faced persecution in his home country.

The hearing last Friday came after almost three years of fighting for asylum, including two previous tribunal hearings and a federal court appeal.

“On the whole the tribunal is homophobic, but on this instance they accepted I was homosexual and I would face persecution if sent back,” Hussein told SSO.

An openly gay activist, Hussein came to Australia on a student visa in 2001 with the intention of seeking asylum. He came to the attention of immigration officials after failing to pay his university fees.

He told SSO he feared jail time under the Bangladesh legal code, which prohibits “unnatural acts” including advocacy of gay rights.

Hussein remains on a bridging visa and cannot work until the ruling is finalised, but he and his supporters celebrated at the weekend after what they called a clear victory for queer refugees.

Greens MLC Sylvia Hale gave evidence on Hussein’s behalf and housed him over the last few months after he was granted the bridging visa earlier this year.

“I was happy to do so. He’s an asset to the community because he’s prepared to be involved in movements like gay rights,” Hale said.

“He doesn’t have an overtly gay relationship, which could cast doubt on his bona fides, but I am aware of the pressure that detention had had on him.

“It’s difficult enough for people to come out in a relatively open society such as Australia, let alone under the pressures of a Muslim or Islamic community.”

Hale said there was considerable evidence of Hussein’s activism that would be difficult to hide. Recently two former Bangladeshi leaders were jailed for political activity.

A number of supporters from Community Action Against Homophobia also gave evidence at last Friday’s hearing.

“It’s a pity the RRT rulings don’t create legal precedence because this would help all the queer refugees,” CAAH spokeswoman Rachel Evans said.

CAAH is also campaigning for queer refugee applicant Ali Humayun to be released from mandatory detention until his case against the Immigration Department is heard in the Supreme Court later this month.

Egyptian-born Mike Sarhan and his Australian partner Brad Calderon are still waiting to hear from the RRT on Sarhan’s refugee application on the basis of homosexual persecution.

This category of refugee claim was first established in 2003 after the High Court ruled in favour of a Bangladeshi gay couple.

The Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby is developing sexuality awareness training material for the RRT. A spokeswoman for the RRT said the training sessions would be conducted in the coming months.

Documentary Film on Gay Muslims Premieres at Toronto Film Festival

From the Globe and Mail

TIFF 2007: DOCUMENTARY: FOR FILM ON GAY MUSLIMS, TIFF IS BEGINNING OF A MISSION

By ALWYNNE GWILT

September 4, 2007

After nearly six years, Parvez Sharma will finally show his documentary A Jihad for Love at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday. But the work is far from over for the filmmaker, whose feature film about the lives of gay Muslims who continue to live strongly by their faith is sure to be provocative.

Instead, as audiences get their first glimpse at the 70-minute documentary filmed in 12 countries and nine languages, Sharma and his producer, Sandi Dubowski, who directed 2001's Trembling Before G-d, will be on the hunt for donations to help pay off the film's post-production costs and fund their planned Muslim Dialogue Project.

"Over the next few years, we need to make sure that even outside of distribution it will be able to get discussions going for years to come, to create impact and change the lives of people," said Sharma, 34, who lives in New York on a visa as an "alien with extraordinary abilities."

Sharma, who is himself a gay Muslim, sees the project as a first for the world of Muslim homosexuals.

"For the first time Islam's most unlikely storytellers are stepping out and stepping proud and sharing their stories with the camera," he said, adding that the fact the film is done from a fully Muslim perspective also makes it stand out.

But neither Sharma nor Dubowski want the film to just be a one-time eye-opener for audiences, but rather the beginning of a lengthier discussion.

With the Muslim Dialogue Project he and Dubowski plan to do just that by using Dubowski's proven method from Trembling: turning cinemas or film festivals into town halls, garnering enough chatter to spread interest in the film as it moves into other countries. After three of the five TIFF screenings, four of the film's actors will discuss their thoughts in a Q&A session at the theatres.

LGBT Ugandan's Speak Out

Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)
Kampala, Uganda

Telephone: +256 312 294 859
Email: info@sexualminoritiesuganda.org
Website: www.sexualminoritiesuganda.org

Press Release by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)
For Immediate Release: Thursday, 16 August 2007

In a landmark case, we, Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people assembled at the High Court of Uganda two months ago to reinforce our right to privacy, dignity, and property. There were no charges against us. We had done nothing wrong.

It is the government who had to answer for illegal behaviour of its agents by discriminating against homosexual and transgender people. Government officials raided the home of Victor Juliet Mukasa, an LGBT Human Rights Defender, in 2005, and illegally arresting a guest they found in her home. They forced their way into Victor’s home, stole many work documents, dragged her guest to Kireka police post, and forced the guest to strip naked in order to prove that she was a woman. The guest and Victor Juliet Mukasa were treated in a degrading and inhumane way. Many of us, as the Ugandan LGBTI community, have suffered similar injustice. We are here today to proclaim that these human rights violations are completely unacceptable. We have had enough of the abuse, neglect, and violence.

No person should be deprived of their constitutional rights; and homosexuals and transgender people are no exception. All people are equal under the law.

Therefore, we step into the public today to give a face to the many who are discriminated against every day in our country. Some of us have brought our faces before you for you to know us. But many of us come before you today with masks to represent the fact that you see homosexuals and transgender people every day without realising that it is what we are. We do not harm anyone. We are your doctor, your teacher, your best friend, your sister, maybe even your father or son.

As Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), the umbrella organisation for Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex organisations, there are two urgent issues we would like you to consider.

HIV/AIDS is a concern for all of us in this country. And yet many people ignorantly turn a blind eye as we die of HIV/AIDS because we as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people do not have proper access to protection, care, and treatment. We cannot continue to ignore the people in this country who are most at risk because of unfair discrimination and stigma. To successfully stop HIV/AIDS, we must treat every person with the dignity and attention they deserve. No one can justify taking away a person’s right to live, when protection and treatment should be readily available to all.

Secondly, as Sexual Minorities Uganda, we would like to publicly acknowledge the police for their leadership in reinforcing justice in this country by speaking out against hate crimes and discrimination of human beings because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Leaders in the police force have recently made great steps toward upholding the law in a just and fair manner, providing equal protection for all people against harm. Likewise, we also urge LDUs to help to end the persecution of minorities, particularly lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and intersex people, by acting in an upright and lawful manner in the course of their duties, respecting and protecting the dignity of all human beings.

Finally, to our communities, our schools, places of work, our families, we would like to end by passing on the wisdom of so many of our parents, who have known us and seen that we are born this way and are still their beloved children. Don’t lay a hand on us, we are the homosexual and transgender children of God. God created us as this way as LGBTI, all we ask is Let Us Live In Peace.

Same-Gender Couple in Malaysia Told to Part; Husband Declared to be a Woman

The marriage of Mohd Sufian Mohamad (right) and Zaiton Aziz was not legitimate.

Couple in same sex marriage ordered to part

By Cynthia Lee

04 September, 2007

MALACCA: Three months short of their fifth wedding anniversary, a couple has been ordered to part as the husband was actually a woman.

Syariah judge Che Saufi Che Husin yesterday ordered a farak (part forever) between Mohd Sufian Mohamad, 40, and Zaiton Aziz, 43, as the marriage was not legitimate under syariah.

The couple arrived in court together in a Perodua Kancil, wearing matching yellow attire, and looked calm when the judgment was read to them.

They walked out of court together and left in the same car.

Sufian, 40, whose birth certificate bears the name Mazinah Mohamad, married Zaiton Aziz, 43, in December 2002.
They were alleged to have committed same-sex marriage and were charged under section 11 of the Malacca Islamic Family Enactment 2002.

The marriage, solemnised by imam Ishak Juki from the Bukit Cina mosque, had been deemed legal as all procedures had been adhered to.

However, problems surfaced a few months later when the Malacca Religious Affairs Department refused to register the marriage after becoming suspicious of the bridegroom’s gender.

Sufian was also ordered to amend his gender status and name in the National Registration Department according to the original birth certificate.

In announcing his ruling, Che Saufi said: "According to the first respondent’s (Zaiton) statement, she had never seen or touched her husband’s private parts and had taken him to be a man all along and that she felt good and satisfied together.

"This is astounding and illogical. It is abnormal to go through life as husband and wife as such."

He said the couple had also failed to prove the "husband" to be a hermaphrodite as claimed by Syariah lawyer Mohd Mokhtar Karim.

Malacca Hospital gynaecologist Dr Nor Hasinah Mohd Said had said a physical examination carried out with two other specialists revealed that Sufian was not a man.

Chromosome and blood tests also confirmed that Sufian was a woman.

Who Understands God's Mercy - Daily Muslim Wisdom

Everyone can see the effects of God's mercy. But who, except God himself, understands the essence of his mercy? Most people cannot understand the essence of any of God's attibutes; they only know his attributes through their effects--and also through analogy. Only mystics have eyes to see the essence of God's attributes.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

Abandon Stereotypes, Muslims in America Say

Joe Tabacca for The New York Times
A vendor who goes by the name Hijabman at the convention, making light of some perceptions of Muslims.

From the NY Times - September 4, 2007

Abandon Stereotypes, Muslims in America Say
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

ROSEMONT, Ill., Sept 3 — It is time for the United States to stop treating every American Muslim as somehow suspect, leaders of the faith said at their largest annual convention, which ended here on Monday.

Six years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans should distinguish between mainstream Muslims and the radical fringe, the leaders said.

“Muslim Americans feel an increasing level of tension and scrutiny in contemporary society,” said Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest Muslim organization in the United States and the convention organizer.

The image problems were among the topics most discussed by many of the 30,000 attendees. A fresh example cited was an open letter from two Republican House members, Peter Hoekstra of Michigan and Sue Myrick of North Carolina, that attacked the Justice Department for sending envoys to the convention because, the lawmakers said, the Islamic Society of North America was a group of “radical jihadists.”

The lone Muslim in Congress, Representative Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, the keynote speaker here, dismissed the letter as ill informed and typical of bigoted attacks that other minorities have suffered.

Leaders of American Muslim organizations attribute the growing intolerance to three main factors: global terrorist attacks in the name of Islam, disappointing reports from the Iraq war and the agenda of some supporters of Israel who try taint Islam to undermine the Palestinians.

American Muslims say they expect the attacks to worsen in the presidential election and candidates to criticize Islam in an effort to prove that they are tough on terrorism.

Zaid Shakir, an African-American imam with rock star status among young Muslims, described how on a recent road trip from Michigan to Washington he heard comments on talk radio from people who were “making stuff up about Islam.”

Among the most egregious, he said, was from a person in Kentucky who denounced the traditional short wood stick some Muslims use to clean their teeth, saying, “They are really sharpening up their teeth because they are planning to eat you, yes they are.”

Representatives of at least eight federal departments and agencies attended the convention, their booths sandwiched among hundreds of others from bookstores, travel agencies, perfumeries, clothing designers and real estate developers.

Mark S. Ward, who runs programs in Asia and the Middle East for the Agency for International Development, said Washington had to compete for influence abroad with militant groups that are expert at delivering humanitarian services.

Mr. Ward said he hoped more American Muslim organizations would apply to help distribute overseas aid.

A few people approached the Federal Bureau of Investigation booth to voice dismay at its presence, said a recruiter, David Valle, but most expressed pleasant surprise.

“A lot of folks think we want to hire them to spy on their community, spy on their families,” he said. “We want to dispel any myths they might have about the F.B.I.”

The Justice Department responded to Mr. Hoekstra and Ms. Myrick’s letter by noting that broad community contact in areas like voting rights was an important part of its mission.

That theme was echoed by Daniel W. Sutherland, chief officer for civil rights and liberties at the Homeland Security Department. Mr. Sutherland told a luncheon audience that the government needed to dispel prejudice and misconceptions to steer the public discussion about fighting terrorism to “a higher level.”

Sometimes frustration with the government boiled over. At a seminar on charitable giving, Ihsan Haque of Akron, Ohio, asked a Treasury Department representative, Michael Rosen, how to avoid being prosecuted for donating to Muslim charities. When Mr. Rosen said the government did not have the resources to check the million or so charities in the United States, Mr. Haque shouted, “And I do?”

Muslim leaders described the government relationship toward Muslim organizations as contradictory. The government seeks to foster greater civic engagement, because a lack of engagement is widely considered a big cause of Muslim extremism in Europe. A Department of Homeland Security official moderated a panel on aiding engagement.

Muslim groups are often treated as suspect, speakers said. In a trial that started in July in Dallas, federal prosecutors named the Islamic Society of North America as part of an effort to raise money for groups the government considers terrorists, but did not charge it with wrongdoing.

The Justice Department has to decide on its law enforcement side what its considers a target, said Khurrum Wahid, a prominent Muslim defense lawyer.

“Are they going to continue to say that the higher degree of religiosity you have the higher likelihood that you are a threat, because that’s the message they’ve sent,” Mr. Wahid said.

Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, denounced by name Christian fundamentalists like Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham, as well as Dennis Prager, a well-known radio host who is Jewish.

“The time has come to stand up to the opportunists, the media figures, the religious leaders and politicians who demonize Muslims and bash Islam, exploiting the fears of their fellow citizens for their own purposes,” Rabbi Yoffie told the opening session.

The Koran tells Muslims to abstain from drinking alcohol and to lower their gaze in modesty when meeting a member of the opposite sex, but some college-age Muslim men and women at the convention stayed up late into the night drinking, talking and getting to know one another.

“If you keep your gaze lowered all the time, you might just walk into a wall,” said Hazem Talha, a high school senior from Atlanta who said he was here for the religious lectures.

Joe Tabacca for The New York Times

Ann Marie Dentzer, center, and Stephanie Stoltzfus, both with the Department of Homeland Security, talking to a Muslim woman at the Islamic Society of North America convention

Malaysia's Muslim Transexuals Battle Sex Change

	Malaysia's Muslim transsexuals battle sex change woes A transsexual sits near a poster at a non-profit organisation's office for transsexuals in Kuala Lumpur August 4, 2007. Transsexuals say they are slowly gaining acceptance although physical abuse and verbal harrassment by the public, police and religious authorities are still routine. REUTERS/Zainal Abd Halim

From Reuters - September 02, 2007

Malaysia's Muslim transsexuals battle sex change woes

By Liau Y-Sing

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - When Khartini Slamah first came out as a transsexual, he was a dutiful Muslim son by day and a prostitute by night, working on the streets of the Malaysian capital.

The option of sex change surgery was out of the question in this moderate Muslim country where Muslim transsexuals are banned from changing their gender and same sex relationships are a criminal offence.

"I tried to find a job but because of my sexuality I was turned down," said the 44-year-old former prostitute who now works as an activist and counselor to other transsexuals.

Twenty years later, sex change surgery may be routine in some countries but it's still banned by law in Malaysia -- at least for Muslims. The ruling doesn't apply to non-Muslims who make up about half of the estimated 30,000 transsexuals in Malaysia.

The ban stems from an Islamic belief that it is wrong to alter that which God has given. This belief also forbids Muslims from dressing up as the opposite sex and undergoing major cosmetic surgery other than for medical reasons.

Non-Muslims don't have the same problems, although they do sometimes have trouble registering their new gender with the state and like their Muslim counterparts, many have to work as prostitutes as there are few job opportunities for transsexuals.

Malaysia's transsexuals are in a legal limbo.

In February 2005, a Malaysian court allowed a non-Muslim male transsexual to change the gender on his identity card after he showed medical evidence of sex-change by surgery, media reports said at the time.

But later that year, the government declared as invalid the marriage of a couple in which the wife was a non-Muslim man who had undergone sex change surgery, saying it was a same-sex union.

"We are tolerant of them (transsexuals). But whether we will have laws that will protect them -- I don't think with the conservative nature of our culture -- that we will," said criminologist P. Sundramoorthy.

For Khartini, dressed in a flowing lilac tunic with his feet squeezed into stiletto heels, the conflict between sexual identity and religion is sometimes too hard to bear.

"We are all in a dilemma. We are Muslims. They say this is not allowed, but they never tell us what are the options. I felt like it's being used to oppress. But I know that religion, Islam is so flexible...," said Khartini, a practicing Muslim.

INNATE OR IMBUED?

Despite its modern exterior, Malaysia remains conservative. Capital Kuala Lumpur -- a bustling metropolis dotted by towering skyscrapers, flashy art galleries and riotous gay bars -- has a deeply religious underbelly.

U.S. singer Gwen Stefani was forced to cover up her usually revealing stage costumes when she performed recently in Kuala Lumpur after Islamic groups expressed fears she could corrupt the country's youth.

Government plans to introduce sex education in schools and to give free needles and condoms to drug addicts provoked a fierce debate, with some religious leaders saying this would promote promiscuity.

The past few decades have seen a rise in religious fervor among Muslims in Malaysia, with an increase in the popularity of Islamic banking and more women eschewing Western attire in favor of traditional Malay dress and headscarves.

Transsexuals are still social outcasts, the victims of physical abuse and verbal harassment by the public, police and religious authorities, who advocate counseling and the use of hormone injections to suppress transsexuals' inclinations.

"We very much encourage them to return to their original form," said Abdullah Md Zin, a minister for religious affairs. "We cannot accept them."

Transsexuals say their preferences are innate.

"There's something biological," said Teh Yik Koon, a criminologist and sociologist. "In my research, there are those as young as three, four years old, who don't feel as if they fit into their assigned gender role."

Few doctors perform gender realignment operations in Malaysia so those seeking the surgery must pay exorbitant prices abroad. Muslims, who make up 60 percent of Malaysia's 26 million population, risk being brought before Islamic courts, which under Malaysian law hear civil cases involving Muslims.

Islamic cleric, Mohamad Asri Zainul Abidin, one of Malaysia's most moderate Muslim leaders believes transsexuals should be fined or jailed if counseling proves ineffective at deterring them.

"We must try to reform them and give them advice. We must not allow them to stray," said the cleric. "Imagine if this world were filled with transsexuals -- what would happen to the human race?"

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Gender, Sexuality and LGBT Issues in Malaysia - see right-hand side of blog under Southeast Asia.

Side note: Ms. Khartini has been a transgender and sex worker activist for many years in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. She is also a member of the international advisory board of IGLHRC.
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'I Struggled Hard But...' - Daily Muslim Wisdom

I struggled hard but did not reap the fruits of my labors. Then I gazed into myself and found that my ego and my heart were unified. When the ego and the heart are united, a portion of all that shines upon the heart is seized by the self. Thus I came to know the cause of my dilemma, that the light illuminating my heart was being seized by my ego.

-Al-Nuri, in "Islamic Sufism"