Massive Mumblings from Malaysia

Lovely Ladies
From observation to interaction

I have mentioned before that I have been surprised by the level of visibility of transsexuals in Malaysia (that is, men who identify themselves as women. Like women, they like men).

Aside from a drag queen show in Iowa City and Trannie Bingo in Manhattan, I haven't noticed as many transsexuals in the US. Though I do know an American female transsexual (that is, a woman who identifies as a male and likes girls). Since I last saw her four years ago, I have learned that she takes testosterone, had a breast reduction and is living as a man, much more happily.

[Note: these are heterosexual transsexuals—they like the sex opposite of how they identify. It is also possible that there are homosexual transsexuals.]

Months ago I saw a National Geographic special called something like “The Third Sex” that told the stories of a few transsexuals in India and Thailand. It was then that I learned about transsexual Thai kick boxer Parinya Charoenphol. She became famous for her style and trademark kick to the head and after establishing herself as a good fighter, began to wear makeup while competing. She had to leave the ring in order to become a woman, as females are not allowed to fight. This spring her story was told in the movie Beautiful Boxer.



The movie advertisements read: "Believing he's a girl trapped in a boy's body since childhood, Parinya...sets out to master the most masculine and lethal sport of Thai boxing to achieve his ultimate goal of total femininity.”


In Malaysia, I’ve seen “lady boys” on the street in KL and Penang. I’ve seen one working a makeup counter in KLCC Mall. The hairdresser that Erika went to in Penang was a transsexual. I’ve met one or two who weren’t cross-dressed at the time of our meeting, but did a few times a week. I’ve been to two drag queen shows at two different bars. Just last week, at the Social Welfare Conference, I had a chance to have lunch with 7 transsexuals and two other conference participants (pictured below, photo from www.malaysiakini.com.)





The conference had two sessions about transsexuals and I attended both to help solve this mystery of who they are, what they do, how they are perceived, the problems they face, etc. Most of the information included below is from the presentation of sociologist Teh Yik Khoon and the transsexuals themselves.

Profile of Malaysian transsexuals

The local terms for transsexuals vary: hijras in India, kathoeys in Thailand, warias in Indonesia, mak nyahs in Malaysia (this is non-derogatory). There are an estimated 20-30,000 mak nyahs in Malaysia and about 75% of them are Malay--which means Muslim.

A few stats (from 1997 data from Teh):

• 60% of transsexuals in Malaysia are sex workers (usually turned to sex work after being unable to find a decent job and living in poverty)
• about 50% of mak nyahs are drug abusers and 80% of the sex workers are
• 74% have secondary school training
  3% have attended an institute of higher education
• 73% have an income less then 1000 RM ($263 US) per month
  about 30% live near or below the poverty line of RM 500
• 16% received moral support from family members (most usually from mothers)
• 62% of respondents cross-dressed full time
• 63% took hormones to enlarge their breasts, reduce body and facial hair, etc.
• of 71% knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS, only 10% practiced safe sex (usually a matter of a customer being willing to pay more to not use a condom and also competition from foreign sex workers)
• 69% had boyfriends
  93% wanted to get married to a man if their religion permitted it

The hormones are available over the counter and only 15% went to a doctor or clinic to get a prescription. This meant that most did not know how much to consume per day, depended on their other friends for information, and knew little or nothing about the side effects of taking hormones.

Problems arise for the mak nyahs in all areas of their lives: from housing (often landlords will not rent to them), to insurance (can’t get), to jobs (can’t get), to mental health (depression, suicide, drug abuse).

When they go to hospitals, it is often embarrassing for the mak nyahs, because they are generally admitted to the male ward, though they look female. Likewise, they have problems when put in jail—usually in men’s cells. The other prisoners harass them and guards have even made some remove their clothes. Since many are taking hormones, they have breasts and this is quite humiliating. The question of where to pray in a mosque is also a problem, but a local sheikh said they should be permitted to pray at the back of the mosque behind the men.

There arise problems post operation as well. The Identify Card still states the sex as male, but the body is female. This leads to problems at the bank and immigration and means that they cannot marry.

Post-op: You'd never know she was once a man!

When Teh was doing her research, she was observing the mak nyahs working the streets to see who it was that picked them up—and that’s when she even saw one of her students!


Reactions of the audience

I was very interested to see who would be brave enough to attend these two sessions on transsexuals. In fact, the room was full for both! There was a cross-section of people—a few foreigners, but mostly local.

A surgeon presented to explain the mechanics behind the sex change operation. After a few Powerpoint slides, some diagrams of the sort you’d see in sex education manuals came up. The doctor asked if he would offend anyone if he showed pictures and there was no response (thankfully, since it was a scientific/medical discussion). I looked around to see if anyone looked upset/disgusted, particularly the veiled women, but there didn’t seem to be any. (That's when I noticed the sign language interpreter and must say it was interesting to watch him sign some of these words!) As the presentation progressed, the diagrams lead to real photographs of genitalia—comparing a biological woman to the post-op result. Again, no one seemed offended or got up to leave. All the medical procedure information was new to me and I was surprised to learn that a fully-functioning clitoris can be constructed that has sensation by preserving nerves and blood supply.

Cross-dressing is prohibited and is punishable as indecent/immoral behavior with fines up to 1000 RM and/or 6 months to one year in prison (55% of those surveyed had been caught by police). This means that there are no government social services provided for them. Teh appealed to the representatives of the Department of Social Welfare and other service providers in attendance to address this highly vulnerable group.

A question or two demonstrated that some people thought that transsexualism was the result of upbringing or previous sexual abuse—both false. Though most of the mak nyahs played with female toys, had female playmates and adopted the female role as a child, this was not pushed on them by a mother who wanted a daughter, etc. but their own natural inclinations.

One woman asked a question that rested on the assumption that mak nyahs wanted to have the operation so that they could become sex workers. Definitely mislead, that one.

In the second session, after several transsexuals addressed the audience and told their stories, there was a lovely moment. A 68-year old veiled woman (she told us how old she was) said that this was the first time she’d heard about their problems and met a mak nyah personally. She said she felt that they were like her daughters and addressed them as ‘ladies.’

Though I’m sure not all myths/prejudices were dispelled, the education the attendants got was really important in combating the stereotypes and putting a real face on a population that is usually only seen as being social and sexually deviant.


Religious rulings about sex change

In 1983, the Conference of Rulers in Malaysia issued a fatwa (Islamic ruling) that prohibited sex change operations, except for in the case of hermaphrodites. This fatwa means that most transsexuals are prohibited from having the operation, that there are few doctors with proper training and experience in Malaysia, and the cost is also a restraining factor. [4% of those surveyed had had sex change operations and 78% of the remaining would have one if their religion permitted it.]

One of the concerns about having the sex change operation was how the body would be buried. According to Muslim rites, only a female can bathe the body of a female and only a male could bathe the body of a male. The mak nyahs would presumably not fit into either category.

The State Mufti of Egypt issued a fatwa in the late 80s as a result of problems raised from a man having undergone a sex change operation after being diagnosed as having psychological hermaphroditism. The fatwa “concluded that if the doctor testified that this was the only cure against the disease, then this treatment was permissible. It must, however, never be performed at the mere wish of a man to become a woman, or vice versa.”

The details of the case can be read According to the article, the Mufti “makes an interesting remark: what the doctor should be looking for are a buried female or a covered male nature, which can then be brought to light by means of the surgery. This amounts to saying that every human being has one true sex, which may be covered by limbs or organs belonging to the other sex. The truth, however, is always underneath. [The Mufti] thus makes a distinction between an outward appearance [zahir], which may be deceptive and an inward essence [batin] which is always true--a well-known and important theme in Muslim culture.”

In this context, the surgery is seen as “re-gendering a body whose sex had been socially and physically disguised but was nevertheless not changed in the least by the operation.” That is, the surgery was making the physical correspond to the inner, innate, true sex. The author concludes that rather than permitting a sex change operation, the arguments presented in the fatwa actually deny the possibility of performing one at all.



Recommended Read: Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides.
Not about transsexualism, but a great novel about biology, gender, and identify.