FYI
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6679733.stm
Pakistan 'same-sex' couple jailed
Shumail Raj (left) and Shahzina Tariq are the focus of attention
A Pakistani court has remanded a couple in custody after ruling that
the husband was actually a woman and their same-sex marriage was
against Islam.
The case is believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country.
The judge said the pair had lied over the husband's gender, and a sex
change operation the husband had had to become a man had not been done
properly.
The couple told the court that they had got married so that the wife
could avoid an arranged marriage.
'Mistake overlooked'
Shumail Raj, 31, had sex-change surgery to become a man and then
married his cousin - who was aware of the condition but says she
needed his help to avoid being forced into wedlock with someone else.
The bride's father wants to annul his daughter's wedding on the
grounds that it is against Islam for two women to marry.
I decided to help her out when she came to me with the problem... she
just needs protection
Shumail Raj
But the couple argue that they married to protect the bride from being
sold into marriage to pay off her uncle's gambling debts.
The two were arrested last week after the bride's family complained
about the gender of her husband.
The High Court in the eastern city of Lahore ruled that Mr Raj had
earlier lied to the court by saying he was a man.
"Neither Islam nor our law allows marriages of the same sex. This
mistake cannot simply be overlooked," Lahore High Court judge Khawaja
Sharif told the couple.
"Why should a case be not registered against you for committing an
unnatural offence and telling a lie?" he asked.
Treatment
The judge ordered that Mr Raj be sent to jail in Lahore and his wife,
Shahzina Tariq, be jailed in her home town of Faisalabad, pending
their trial.
Correspondents say that if convicted of an "unnatural offence" - a
term used for homosexuality - they could be sentenced to life in
prison.
Shahzina Tariq said they married because they were in love.
"We're not homosexuals. Ours was a love marriage," the 24-year-old
woman, clad in a long shawl, told reporters after the verdict.
"It was the fear of forced marriage which compelled me to convince
Shumail for marriage," Dawn newspaper quoted her as saying.
"I was fully aware of Shumail's physical condition."
Mr Raj has undergone surgery twice in Pakistan over the past 16 years
to become a man.
But tests carried out by doctors on behalf of the court ruled that he
was still a woman, and he himself says that he needs to go abroad for
more treatment even though his breasts and uterus have been removed.
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