Pakistani declare transgender marriages legal under Islamic law

A group of clerics in Pakistan has declared marriage between transgender individuals is legal under Islamic law. They also said they have a right to be buried in Muslim ceremonies, according to a copy of a religious edict Reuters obtained on Monday.

Further, transgender people have full rights under Islamic inheritance law, the Tanzeem Ittehad-i-Ummat Pakistan, a little-known clerical body in the eastern city of Lahore, said in its fatwa. 

'It is permissible for a transgender person with male indications on his body to marry a transgender person with female indications on her body,' said the document, signed by 50 clerics and issued on Sunday. 

'Also, normal men and women can also marry such transgender people as have clear indications on their body.'

But it did not say what these indications were.

In 2012, Pakistan's Supreme Court declared equal rights for transgender citizens, including the right to inherit property and assets, preceded a year earlier by the right to vote.

Pakistani marriage law remains murkier, however. It denies homosexual couples permission to marry, with male homosexuals having been charged under anti-sodomy laws in the past.

Pakistani declare transgender marriages legal under Islamic law