5 January 2024 | Bangladesh
Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh issued a statement on 5 January 2024 opposing the proposed Transgender Persons’ Rights Protection Act, 2023. The statement was issued in the names of the organisation’s Amir, Allama Shah Muhibbullah Babunagari, and Secretary General, Allama Sheikh Sajidur Rahman, and circulated to the media on Friday afternoon under the signature of its Central Publicity Secretary, Mufti Kifayatullah Azhari. The Hefazat leaders stated that they had reviewed the draft legislation and received information suggesting that it was being prepared for passage. Addressing the Government of Bangladesh, they argued that although the proposed legislation was being presented as a measure to protect the rights of the Hijra community, it would recognise transgender identities, which they rejected as distinct from the Hijra population. The organisation called on the government to consider its objections to the proposed legal framework.
In their statement, the Hefazat leaders distinguished between Hijra and transgender identities through their interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence and biological sex. They described Hijra people as individuals born with both male and female physical characteristics and associated this understanding with the Islamic jurisprudential category of khuntha. In contrast, they characterised transgender people as individuals born male or female who subsequently identify with another gender. The leaders rejected the possibility of changing one’s sex through gender identity or medical procedures and described the recognition of transgender identities as an alteration of God’s creation. They declared such recognition religiously prohibited and characterised it as a serious violation of Islamic teachings. They further argued that the rights of Hijra people should be protected through existing principles of Islamic jurisprudence rather than through legislation recognising transgender identities. These descriptions and religious judgments represented the positions expressed by the organisation’s leadership.
The statement also opposed the proposed legislation on the grounds that recognising transgender people would, according to the Hefazat leaders, conflict with Islamic rules governing marriage, divorce, lineage, gender segregation and inheritance. They alleged that legal recognition of transgender identities could lead to changes in religious provisions concerning men and women and could provide legal legitimacy to homosexuality and sexual conduct prohibited under their interpretation of Islam. The leaders further claimed that such developments would undermine the moral and social order of individuals, families and the state, while warning of religious consequences for those supporting or implementing the legislation. They described the proposed law as contrary not only to Islamic Sharia but also to what they considered human nature and acceptable social values, and called on people of other religious backgrounds to oppose it as well.
References
Jugantor — হিজড়া ও ট্রান্সজেন্ডার বিষয়ে হেফাজতের ব্যাখ্যা (5 January 2024)
