Fed up of being women, five Saudis change sex

[deadparrot]

RIYADH (Reuters) - Five Saudi women have undergone sex change operations because they developed a psychologic complex in the male-dominated Muslim society, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Al Watan newspaper quoted psychology expert Mohamed Abdelmawjoud as saying the operations took place over a year's period. Authorities did not bother any of them, according to the report.

An interior ministry official told the paper such cases are examined by religious authorities, and sometimes by psychologists, but never get arrested.

But a senior cleric said authorities have to fill a legal vacuum by issuing laws against sex change operations.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060403/hl_nm/saudi_sex_dc

[hopein08]

1. Sheesh...it's a good thing * sees the Saudis as being the forward-thinking

Arab nation.

You'd think they were imposing strict restrictions on their women or something.

:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:

[Samurai_Writer]

2. I wouldn't want to be a woman in Saudi Arabia either

And the way the US is going, women here won't have it much better for long.

[leQ]

3. i dont get it.... these women got a surgically attached penis?

i didn't think it was possible.

[pitohui]

5. are you sure you really want the details?

they are widely available elsewhere on the fabulous internets

there's a lot more to it than sticking a cheney in front

[baldguy]

6. Some plastic surgeons are artists.

[UncleSepp]

8. There are several options, IMO not optimal

The technology is still in development. Like another poster explained, there's a lot more to gender reassignment than just sewing on a penis and reshaping the chest. For an FtM (person going from female to male), the largest physical transformation is done by hormones. That's what causes the masculinization changes which are most evident to others, such as lowering of the voice, increase of muscle mass, and redistribution of fat from female patterns to male patterns.

[IndianaGreen]

11. It is easy to grow a Chia penis!

Just apply the Chia gel to the appropriate region and, voila, in a few days you will have a Chia penis. Spend a little more money and you can get the Chia penis with the Clapper. Instant erection by just clapping your hands, and no Viagra!

[UncleSepp]

12. Alfalfa sprout salad, anyone? :: evil grin ::

[readmoreoften]

15. If men were penises I might be straight.

But they aren't, so I'm just a girl who likes butch lesbians with strap-ons. Men are more than penises. Little do they know, many of them.

[superconnected]

4. who would't choose to be a man, under that kind of opression.

"Saudi Arabia adopts an austere form of Islam, which requires women to cover up in public and bans them from driving or going out unaccompanied by a male relative."

[UncleSepp]

9. Um, someone who knew herself to be female?

This isn't something transfolk do because they "want the privileges of men", regardless of if it is in Saudi Arabia or the United States.

[readmoreoften]

14. The answer to your question, madamsir..

is the male-to-female transsexuals in Saudi Arabia.

[DarkmoonIkonoklast]

16. and to think we ally ourselves with such freedom-loving people!

[AlienGirl]

7. So there are five FTMs who transitioned in a year in Saudi Arabia?

IMO this isn't the result of the oppressive society--which clearly *is* repressive--but something more like the normal rate of transition, being blown up to make it "news."

How many MTF Saudis transitioned in the same year?

Tucker

[UncleSepp]

10. This is legal in Iran, incidentally

Saudi clerics might issue their laws, but Iranian clerics have made different decisions. In Iran, the thinking that leads to legal and state-funded gender reassigment is based in anti-homosexual bias. Because a transgendered person, before transition, cannot enter into a marriage that is heterosexual in body and spirit, gender transition is allowed.

[readmoreoften]

13. Hey Formerly Aunt Jen! Great to see ya!

Yeah, this was the initial reason for TG research in the US as well, to make straights out of gays. Oops, didn't quite work that way.