Three young Arab women want to become men in UAE

Federal Appeal Court rejects their requests, even after medical reports recommended the sex-change operations

In a rare development, three young local women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have sought the official permission to change their gender, Khaleej Times reported.

However, the requests of the Arab women got rejected by the Federal Appeal Court. The three also desired to change their female names in the government national registry.

All the females are aged below 25, filed a lawsuit in order to gain the permission to become men after reportedly undergoing a sex-change operation abroad.

The women presented the documents and medical reports from European hospitals that recommended the sex-change operations.



Ali Abdullah al Mansouri, their lawyers, previously explained the reason behind the sex-change was due to suffering from congenital defects and having masculine features including too much hair on their legs, having a manly voices and other characteristics “that distinguished them from women”.

He said all they now want is legal permission to have their gender and names changed in government records.

Al Mansouri had argued in the appeal court that the local medical committee appointed by the first court to examine the condition of his clients and issue a medical report on their eligibility for sex change acknowledged in their report that the women had sex disorders which cannot be reversed, but failed to recommend them for sex change.



"The report by the medical committee was brief and didn't look extensively into the fact that the young women had suffered from this gender disorder since childhood," said the lawyer.

Al Mansouri said the women have felt as if they were males at an early stage and want permission to become so and that denying them this would affect them psychologically which would lead to depression.

"They feel that they are men trapped in female bodies and they want to overcome this by getting court permission for sex change," said the lawyer.

According to the Federal First instance Court, rejected and refused the permission for their sex-change, however, the women challenged the ruling in the Federal Appeal Court which was upheld the first ruling.

Al Mansouri said his clients would likely challenge the ruling at the Federal Supreme Court.

This article originally appeared on Khaleej Times.