Recent sex change cases have sparked considerable debate in the Saudi society. The first case which roused great interest in the society relates to a 40-year old schoolteacher in Makkah who underwent the surgery creating mixed responses from her relatives and many of her students. The second case is that of a Saudi woman in her thirties who was convinced of being a male by her physician and decided to act as one despite her being clinically able to conceive and give birth. The third case is that of a young girl who, upon returning from Europe, broke to her family the stunning news that she underwent a sex change operation and asked them to accept the new reality. According to Dr. Sa'ad Bin Abdullah Al-Mushawah, Professor of Psychological Health at King Khaled National Guard Military College, the Saudi community is starting to witness a psychological and social phenomenon in a society where discussion or even mention of the subject was a taboo in the past because of its religious and social implications. Dr. Al-Mushawah explained that what is meant is induced sex change where a man or a woman are biologically, sexually and socially confirmed as being male or female and decide suddenly to change their gender. "Psychological and sexual disorders vary to a great extent due to their overlapping. These are the sexual identity disorders which are manifested in the form of a wish on the part of an individual, male or female, to live and to be accepted as someone from the opposite sex," Dr. Al-Mushawah said. These individuals have common beliefs, including those of being in an inner prison, stereotyped by the family or the society as being male or female, Dr. Al-Mushawah said. After a period of time, those who have undergone sex change operations feel a violent inclination to go back to being what they were in the past. Children may also develop sex disorders due to familial and social neglect or to segregation from the society by parents. As a result, a male child may be raised amid his sisters or isolated in a world of his own and, as a result, develops an identity disorder and becomes unable to identify with his own gender. Mothers sometimes play a part in this confused identity issue by failing to buy toys suitable for their children's ages and gender. From a social perspective, Dr. Saud Al-Daheyan, Professor of Community Service at King Saud University, said: "Sex change is a complicated process which becomes even more confusing when a transformed male or female grow older. A female becoming a male may be ridiculed or teased at the outset but will sooner or later integrate into the society whereas it won't be as simple for the male becoming a female. "To address this issue is not an easy task as it requires training of the family, relatives and friends of the newly transformed person," Dr. Al-Daheyan added. He also called for the pronouncement of an official edict on the legitimacy of sex change: "If sex change is not prohibited the matter will become much less complicated. But on the other side, it will become much more complex as those who change their sexes will become outcasts," he said. Dr. Khaled Al-Sabeet, Professor of Islamic Studies at King Khaled National Guard Military College, said men and women are perfect creations of Almighty Allah and that neither should give in to whims or improper inclinations to change his/her sex. He called on specialists to heighten public awareness to avert rejection of transformed individuals. - Al
