Principles in Practice: The Blog of the Objective Standard

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Sex-Changes for Freedom

Posted by Alan Germani at 3:46 PM

A story from an Arabic news site reports an interesting development in Saudi Arabia: female to male sex-change operations:

Reports reveal that in 2005, there were no less than five cases of women who underwent surgery to become men in the Kingdom, according to Al Watan….

Some Saudi officials have reportedly laid blame for the shocking phenomenon on the blasphemous influences of the West, as well as on "psychological defects" of those who underwent the surgery.

However, according to other sources, the women embarked on the painful and dangerous transformation as a way to overcome the severe oppression and inequality that they reportedly encountered in Saudi society.

By becoming men, the women believe, they would have the opportunity to enjoy those privileges denied them as Saudi females but allowed to Saudi males, including rights taken for granted in other societies, such as driving a car or even going to public places unaccompanied by a male relative.

Not being able to drive cars or move freely are minor examples of the oppression women face in Saudi Arabia and other Islamic theocracies. Arranged marriages, domestic abuse, and honor killings are regular aspects of Muslim women's so-called lives. When their alternative is to become a man or to suffer a lifetime of psychological and physical abuse, the big surprise is that more Muslim women haven't had sex-change operations. Then again, maybe they have. Osametta? Abu Musabina? Hey, it's worth an autopsy.

Labels: Psychology, Religion