What is a woman?

Legalising self-perceived identity endangers women's spaces

On 19^th May 2023, the Federal Shariat Court declared sections 2(f), 3 and 7 of the Transgenders Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 as void and having no legal standing. The court categorically stated that self-perceived identity cannot make its way to identity cards. The judgement received massive backlash from some while it was welcomed by the others.

Certain groups argue that the whole idea of self-perceived identity is absurd while the ‘woke’ ones believe you can identify as a two-spirit penguin if you want to.

In this entire fiasco, the one thing that needs to be protected are women’s rights. Because the lines tend to get blurred between 107 different genders, we arrive at this one pivotal question that many are ironically struggling to answer in 2023. What is a woman?

This piece will focus on three things. One, does your-self perceived identity give you the right to trample over women’s rights and women’s sports? Two, are there really more than a 100 genders? Three, where do you draw the line?

The Federal Shariat Court, while striking down the idea of self-perceived identity, took special care in ensuring that rights of the intersex people were protected. The 107-page judgement also lays down the idea of not giving legal standing to subjective ‘feelings’.

Keeping aside the rage and the angst, upon a close reading the judgement, one realises that the Federal Shariat Court has given sound reasons. Self-perceived identity is all fun and games until someone wakes up one day, identifies as a woman, commits a crime and demands to be placed in an all-female prison. Similarly, women in Pakistan have very limited safe spaces. Legalising self-perceived identity endangers spaces such as beauty parlors and female bathrooms and risks them being taken over by biological males who just happen to identify as a woman.

For example, Ivy League swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male who just happens to identify as a woman, competed in a woman’s swimming competition and set the record for the fastest time (43 seconds) for finishing a 200-yard race. Thomas was competing against all females while being a biological male.

Science proves that men have greater muscle mass and longer bones which gives them an advantage over biological females in sports. Do you really want women’s sports to end?

Gender dysphoria is a medical condition mentioned in the DSM 5. People with gender dysphoria tend to alter their sex through surgeries and go through immense trauma and struggle; and such effort is commendable. But randomly identifying as whatever one feels on a particular day blurs the lines.

Let us assume that self-perceived identity is the way to go. What do you do about someone who identified as a female but decided to identify as a male to get a larger share in property?

The West let this matter enter their schools and now it has reached the point where kids as little as 10 are identifying as cats, dinosaurs and penguins and are being chemically castrated so that what they ‘feel’ corresponds to their gender identity. Healthy kids are being put through sex altering surgeries.

Matt Walsh, an American political commentator, has recently released a documentary termed ‘what is a woman’ where he asks everyone, including professors and members of parliament, what is a woman and amazingly, they all fail to answer. Not because they don’t know what a woman is but because they are too scared to face repercussions.

You can be proud of your gender identity but I don’t have to be. You can live your life on your own terms but I don’t have to live mine on yours. All humans deserve respect and dignity.

But scientifically (spoiler alert), you are either born with XX chromosomes, XY chromosomes or XXY chromosomes. You can decide to identify as a butch or superman but 100 years from now when your body is dug up, researchers will say ‘here lay a man’ or ‘here lay a woman’ and that will be that.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2023.

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