"Since 1988 around 20 sex change cases have been registered in Egypt. Most of them involve men who become women," the head of the civil status bureau, Ibrahim Beseila, told AFP.
Sex change operations are authorized by Egypt's doctors' union "but are done quietly due to the sarcasm they raise from the public" a union source said.
Sayed Abdullah, the first known case in Egypt, ran into more than just sneers. Al Azhar University threw him out of its medical school in 1988 after he underwent the operation and emerged Sali Abdullah.
At the time the university condemned the transsexual as a "disgusting imitation of a woman forbidden by Islam".
An administrative court later overturned the university's ruling and ordered Sali placed in Al Azhar's medical school for women.
But Sali had no problem in avoiding military service, required only for men in Egypt. She also succeeded in changing her identity card after a surprised ministry of interior committee assigned with reviewing changes in the document called in doctors to testify to the first-ever change in the 'sex' category of the card.
Sali also married after working as a belly dancer in a Cairo cabaret where she attracted numerous clients, not to mention the interest of the press in which her photo was everywhere.
But Sali turned down an interview with AFP, saying, 'My husband is jealous and has forbidden me to speak to the press. I obey him to preserve our happiness.'
Courtesy Melinda Whiteway via Petra Dawn
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