Determination of sex in the human

This question was answered by Syed Ahmed Alhasan as on 16th February 2014 on his FaceBook page

Both the English translation and original Arabic are given below:

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English Translation

May the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you.
Blessed and kind regards to the visitors of this blessed page.

Abdullah Hashem wrote:
In the name of Allah, the Abundantly Merciful, the Intensely Merciful.
May the abundant peace and prayers of Allah be upon Muhammad and the progeny of Muhammad, the Imams and the Mahdis.
My Imam, Sayyed Ahmed al-Hasan,
I have a question from someone who requested that I send it to you.

He says:
“Ever since I was a child, I have felt like a female. I am actually certain of it and feel like I am in a body that is not my own. I want to know if al-Khomeini’s ruling is jurisprudentially correct concerning sex-change operations. Is it permissible for me to have the operation and is it what is best for me? Because I really can’t fight this feeling that I am a female. I am one of the believers in the blessed call and I requested that Abdullah Hashem send this letter to you because I am too embarrassed to ask you myself. If the operation is not permissible, is there something I can do to fix myself and to make me a heterosexual male who is not attracted to men? D.E.”
Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Abundantly Merciful, the Intensely Merciful.
Praise be to Allah.
There is a way to determine the sex of a human which is the physical state and whether the person has genitals that are fully developed. If the genitals are masculine, the person is a male and it is not permissible for him to have a sex-change operation. If the genitals are feminine, the person is a female and it is not permissible for her to have a sex-change operation. However, if the genitals are not fully developed or if the person has a combination of them or other similar congenital abnormalities, he can choose the sex and have a surgical procedure that declares him male or female. This is the answer concerning the jurisprudential aspect.

As for the human having a feeling that he is carrying a female within him while he is a male or vice versa, it is an issue we can understand from knowing that sex determination came at a late stage of evolution on planet Earth. Life did not begin with sexual reproduction. The beginning was with asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction came later. It has several orientations; one of them is the animal that is a hermaphrodite, i.e., having both masculine and feminine reproductive organs. Another orientation includes a type of fish, which at some stages in its life is male with fully developed reproductive organs. He fertilizes, and then in a different stage transforms into a female with fully developed reproductive organs and she lays eggs. Another orientation is our case, where there is a male and a female who are separate and whose sexes are determined for their entire lives. In this case, the fetus has the potential to be a male or a female. What determines the growth of certain genitals and not others are the sex hormones. This means that within each body there is a male and a female, or let’s say the potential to be male or female. What happens is that one of them dominates when implementing the genetic blueprint specific for this body, so the fetus becomes male or female. This issue is clear in some conditions or chromosome abnormalities, as is the case in androgen insensitivity syndrome, where sometimes the case is a female with internal male organs. I mentioned this in The Atheism Delusion, and here is the text to clarify this issue for you:

“There is a genetic mutation that affects the androgen receptors and it is called the masculinization hormone [androgen] syndrome in the fetus (46XY). This mutation inhibits the effect of the male sex gene; thus, a feminine reproductive system is formed. The case of one afflicted with this syndrome depends on the type of mutation and the degree of its effect on androgen receptors. So he could have incomplete male and female organs and one of them might suffice. But in general there are feminine characteristics.
So if the fetus carrying male genes, meaning (46XY), suffers from a complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, externally he would be completely female. In fact, it is usually difficult to diagnose the case early without precise testing. So the fetus has apparent feminine organs, so he is usually a female, but she is without a uterus or ovaries, meaning she is a female with an incomplete female reproductive system, and she also has an internal male reproductive system that is concealed within the pelvis.”
According to the above, we can understand that each male carries a dead female within him, and each female carries a dead male within her. What homosexuals do is psychologically revive this buried physical interior that became obsolete during fetal development, although actually and practically, there is no significant, real and actual trace of it in the body. A male might have to play a female role, and the female might have to play a male role. The truth is, not only does the human being practice this, but other animals practice this as well by 10 percent, perhaps slightly more or less, and the reason for that is what I clarified above. With this statement, it is made clear that homosexuality is not natural just because other animals practice it. It is an issue of abnormality and departure from the nature that dominates the body of the living being. What is natural is to place laws that prevent and limit this abnormality, and not the opposite. However, and unfortunately, the fact that homosexuality is a common characteristic in the animal kingdom was used as an excuse to persuade some politicians in Britain and France, most of whom are ignorant about evolutionary biology, to pass gay marriage laws.

The scientific truth that we, and the rest of the animals whose bodies are particular to a single, fully developed reproductive system all of their lives, are sexually specific. The attempt of some individuals to practice homosexuality does not make homosexuality natural. It is a departure from the physical and physiological nature, and the living being, especially the rational one like the human, can easily suppress this homosexuality. That’s why what is correct is to place laws that suppress and help suppress homosexuality and not the other way around, like what is happening these days, very unfortunately, as news of countries’ acknowledgement of gay marriage continues to surface.

So the cure is in the hands of each person who finds himself inclining toward homosexuality. If there is satanic inspiration telling him there is a dead female inside of him and pushing him to revive her, he knows that within him is a living, prominent male with complete reproductive organs, and the same goes for the female. If we say, as an example, that each human male has 90 percent male and 10 percent female within him, and each human female has 90 percent female and 10 percent male within her, it is natural that the male characteristics and desires dominate the male because it is the higher percentage of his physical composition. The same goes for the female, as female characteristics will dominate her. Allowing the 10 percent to dominate the body and turn a male into a female, or vice versa, is an abnormal and deviated condition, and the human being should be able to suppress it and dominate it because it is a departure from the physical nature dominating the body due to deceptive inspirations that can be confronted and suppressed once the sexual truth that dominates the body is faced.
What’s left is the possibility of there being conditions that affect the body, such as a deficiency or an excess of some hormones, or other conditions. These conditions can be treated by visiting a specialized physician.

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Original Arabic