Different Does Not Mean Inhuman
Rethinking How We See Transgender People
“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another.”
— Qur’an 49:13
Before we begin discussing transgender people, there is an important distinction I want to make clear.
When I use the term “transgender” in this article, I am referring specifically to people who experience a difference between their gender identity and the sex assigned to them at birth. I am not using the term simply to describe someone who deliberately chooses to alter their biological sex through medical or surgical procedures.
This distinction is important because the modern word transgender is not a category defined in the Qur’an or Hadith in the way the term is understood today. Contemporary health terminology describes gender identity as a person’s deeply felt internal experience, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth. It also distinguishes transgender experiences from intersex, which refers to natural variations in biological sex characteristics.
Islamic scholarship likewise has distinctions that should not be erased. Classical Islamic jurisprudence discusses khunthā, generally referring to a person born with ambiguous or atypical biological sex characteristics. This is not simply the same thing as a person who deliberately changes their biological sex later in life.
Therefore, I do not want to place every person described by the modern word transgender into one single category or assume that every person’s circumstances are identical.
At the same time, Islam does have a position regarding deliberate sex transformation.
The International Islamic Fiqh Academy of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, in Resolution No. 251 (13/25), issued in 2023, defines “gender transformation” as the transformation of a male into a female or a female into a male and rules such transformation prohibited under Sharia. The resolution connects this ruling with Qur’an 4:119 and relevant hadith.
The Qur’an says:
“…and I will command them so they will change the creation of Allah.”
— Qur’an 4:119
It is important to represent this evidence accurately. The Qur’an does not literally mention modern gender-reassignment surgery by name. Rather, contemporary Islamic jurists, including the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, have applied the broader principle in this verse to deliberate biological sex transformation.
There is also a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari concerning deliberate imitation between men and women.
This is the distinction I want to establish before going any further: the subject of this article is not people who deliberately undergo biological sex transformation. My focus is on the transgender people described within the scope above, and on how society sees and treats them.
The Question We Rarely Ask
When we hear the word transgender, what is the first image that comes to our minds?
Perhaps someone asking for money at a traffic signal.
Someone dancing at a wedding.
Someone singing in a group.
Someone wearing clothes or presenting themselves in a way that immediately makes them noticeable.
For many people, these images have become so familiar that they almost feel like definitions.
But what if they are not definitions?
What if they are simply the most visible consequences of a much larger social problem?
What if the reason we see transgender people in only a few kinds of spaces is partly because society has historically closed many other doors to them?
And perhaps the more important question is:
Have we mistaken the consequences of exclusion for the identity of an entire community?
The Human Being Behind the Label
The word transgender can become so powerful that we stop seeing the person behind it.
We forget that before any label, there is a person with a family, an education, fears, ambitions, abilities, weaknesses, and a future they may be trying to build.
The World Health Organization distinguishes biological sex from gender identity and notes that transgender people have different experiences; some seek medical or surgical transition while others do not.
That complexity matters.
Because society often discusses transgender people as though they are one identical group with one identical story.
They are not.
And this is where our conversation needs to become more thoughtful.
Transgender and Intersex Are Not the Same Thing
Another distinction that is frequently misunderstood is the difference between transgender and intersex.
Intersex refers to natural variations in biological sex characteristics. Transgender, by contrast, concerns gender identity in relation to the sex assigned at birth.
These are different concepts and should not be treated as interchangeable. WHO specifically describes intersex as natural variations in biological or physiological sex characteristics and distinguishes this from gender identity.
Understanding this difference is important because discussions about gender can become confused when biological sex characteristics, gender identity, gender expression, and medical transition are all placed into one category.
A serious discussion requires us to understand the terms before forming conclusions about people.
The Image We Have Learned to See
In our society, transgender people are often associated with begging, dancing, singing, or appearing in public spaces where they are highly visible.
But visibility is not the same as opportunity.
If someone has been excluded from education, rejected by family, bullied in school, denied employment, and pushed away from ordinary social spaces, their available ways of earning a living may become extremely limited.
Then society sees the limited opportunities available to them and says:
“This is what they do.”
But perhaps we should ask:
“What opportunities were available to them in the first place?”
That question changes the entire conversation.
When Exclusion Becomes a Stereotype
There is a cycle that deserves our attention.
Exclusion creates fewer opportunities.
Fewer opportunities create visible patterns.
Those patterns become stereotypes.
And stereotypes are then used to justify further exclusion.
A person may be denied education because of prejudice.
That makes professional employment more difficult.
Limited employment opportunities may push them toward whatever means of survival remain available.
Society then looks at those circumstances and concludes that transgender people are naturally incapable of respectable work.
The stereotype becomes evidence for the prejudice that created it.
This is how a social problem can disguise itself as a personal deficiency.
The Stories We Rarely Hear
This is why stories matter.
Not because a transgender person must become a lawyer, police officer, teacher, politician, or principal before they deserve dignity.
They do not.
A person’s worth should never depend on their profession.
But stories can challenge the assumption that transgender people belong only in one narrow category of society.
Aisha Mughal — Pakistan
Aisha Mughal became the first transgender person to work at Pakistan’s Ministry of Human Rights. In 2020, she was also included in Pakistan’s official delegation to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women review in Geneva — described by UNDP as the first time a transgender person had been included in that official reporting procedure.
Her story matters because it places a transgender person inside a space many people may never imagine them occupying: a formal governmental and international policy environment.
Reem Sharif — Pakistan
Reem Sharif’s story is revealing because it shows both exclusion and possibility.
UNDP documents the discrimination, bullying and harassment she experienced during her education. She later became the first transgender police officer in the Rawalpindi Police force and was appointed as a Victim Support Officer and Facilitator for complaints from the transgender community.
Her story raises an uncomfortable question:
How many people might discover their abilities if society gave them the opportunity to develop them instead of deciding their limits for them?
Nisha Rao — Pakistan
Nisha Rao has been documented by UNDP as Pakistan’s first transgender lawyer.
Her path was not easy. She financed her legal education by begging on the streets while presenting herself as male, later came out during law school, and struggled to fit into the educational environment. She eventually completed her legal education and began working to raise awareness among communities, government officials, and students.
Her story is important not because becoming a lawyer makes her more worthy than someone working on the street.
It does not.
It is important because it challenges the assumption that a transgender person has no place in education or professional life.
Political Participation in Pakistan
Political participation is another area in which transgender people have sought visibility.
UNDP has documented transgender political participation and inclusion efforts in Pakistan, including work connected with political candidates and electoral participation.
Whatever our individual political opinions may be, one principle is straightforward:
Citizenship should not become invisible simply because a person belongs to a socially marginalised group.
Beyond Pakistan: The Stories We Rarely Hear
And Pakistan is not the only place where transgender people have entered fields that society once considered inaccessible to them.
Georgina Beyer — New Zealand
In New Zealand, Georgina Beyer became Mayor of Carterton in 1995 and, in 1999, became the world’s first openly transgender member of parliament.
Her story demonstrates something that is easy to overlook when our understanding of transgender people is limited to stereotypes:
A transgender person can occupy public office and participate in civic life beyond the narrow social roles assigned to them.
Dr. Manabi Bandopadhyay — India
In India, Dr. Manabi Bandopadhyay became the country’s first openly transgender college principal. She had worked as an academic before becoming principal of Krishnagar Women’s College in West Bengal in 2015.
Again, the point is not that becoming a principal suddenly makes someone worthy of respect.
The point is that the stereotype becomes harder to maintain when transgender individuals are seen occupying professional spaces such as education and administration.
There are other documented examples as well, including Joyita Mondal’s work in India’s judicial and social sectors.
These stories should not be presented as proof that one community is “better” than another.
They should simply make us question the assumptions we have inherited.
Why Do These Stories Matter?
Because representation changes imagination.
If a child grows up seeing transgender people only at traffic signals, weddings, or on the streets, that may become their entire mental picture of the community.
But what happens when they also see a transgender teacher?
A lawyer?
A police officer?
A researcher?
A healthcare worker?
A public servant?
A student?
A voter?
A candidate?
Suddenly, the category becomes more human.
Not because every transgender person needs to become professionally successful.
But because society begins to understand that a person cannot be reduced to the most visible stereotype attached to their community.
Acceptance Should Not Begin With Achievement
There is something else we must be careful about.
I do not believe transgender people should have to prove their worth through extraordinary achievements.
Why should someone need a master’s degree before we stop mocking them?
Why should someone need to become a lawyer before we believe they deserve education?
Why should someone need to work in a hospital before we believe they deserve healthcare?
Why should someone need to enter politics before we recognise that they are citizens?
A guard deserves dignity.
A street vendor deserves dignity.
A labourer deserves dignity.
A domestic worker deserves dignity.
A student deserves dignity.
And a transgender person deserves basic human dignity too.
Dignity should not be a reward for success.
Family Is Where Change Can Begin
Perhaps the most important place to begin is not parliament, social media, or universities.
It is home.
Family rejection can have consequences far beyond one painful conversation.
When a child is repeatedly told that they are a source of shame, when relatives become more important than the child’s wellbeing, and when social reputation becomes more important than compassion, the child may eventually stop seeing home as a place of safety.
UNDP has documented the effects of social exclusion and barriers faced by transgender people in Pakistan, including challenges connected to education, employment, healthcare, and family and social acceptance.
This does not mean that parents must abandon their religious beliefs.
It means that guidance and cruelty are not the same thing.
A parent can hold religious convictions and still refuse to humiliate their child.
A family can disagree with a person’s choices without making that person feel worthless.
That is where compassion becomes meaningful.
Education Can Change the Next Generation
If we genuinely want society to change, awareness cannot remain limited to social media posts.
Schools and colleges are where future attitudes are formed.
Students should at least learn the difference between biological sex, gender identity, intersex variations, and transgender experiences so that ignorance does not become the foundation of their behaviour.
This does not require abandoning religious values.
It requires teaching students something more basic:
You may disagree with someone without humiliating them.
Education should teach people how to think carefully, how to distinguish fact from stereotype, and how to treat another human being with basic decency.
From Awareness to Action
Awareness is only the first step.
What does practical change look like?
It can mean making educational institutions safer from bullying.
It can mean healthcare workers treating patients professionally rather than mockingly.
It can mean workplaces judging applicants by their qualifications rather than assumptions.
It can mean police and public institutions responding to complaints without humiliation.
It can mean families choosing conversation over rejection.
It can mean telling stories that show the full range of human experiences instead of repeating the same stereotype.
And it can mean allowing people to participate in society without first demanding that they prove they deserve a place there.
Rights Are Not Special Favours
Education is not a special favour.
Healthcare is not a special favour.
Safety is not a special favour.
Protection from violence is not a special favour.
Being able to walk into a public institution without being mocked is not a special favour.
Political participation is not a special favour.
These are basic questions about how a society treats human beings.
And this is where our language matters.
We do not need to say:
“They are exactly like everyone else.”
Human beings are not identical.
We can acknowledge differences.
We can maintain religious boundaries.
We can disagree with certain behaviours.
But none of that requires us to say:
“Therefore, you are less human.”
We Do Not Have to Agree With Everything to Be Human
Many people think that if they show kindness toward a transgender person, they are automatically endorsing everything that person believes or does.
But disagreement and cruelty are not the same thing.
I can disagree with something without insulting the person.
I can maintain my religious position without encouraging violence.
I can believe that deliberate sex transformation is prohibited while still believing that a human being should not be humiliated or treated as though they have no value.
Human dignity and religious endorsement are not the same thing.
This distinction allows us to have a more mature conversation — one that neither abandons Islamic principles nor abandons basic human decency.
Perhaps We Are Asking the Wrong Questions
Instead of asking:
“Why are they different?”
Perhaps we should ask:
“Why have we decided that difference makes someone less deserving?”
Instead of asking:
“Why don’t they behave like us?”
Perhaps we should ask:
“Have we ever given them enough space to live beyond the role society assigned to them?”
Instead of asking:
“What will people say?”
Perhaps we should ask:
“What will Allah ask us about the way we treated another human being?”
That last question matters to me the most.
Because Islam does not teach us that arrogance becomes acceptable simply because we believe we are morally correct.
Before the Label, There Is a Human Being
Perhaps we need to slow down before we judge.
Before transgender.
Before man or woman.
Before profession.
Before social status.
Before appearance.
Before the stereotypes.
There is a human being.
A person who can feel pain.
A person who can be humiliated.
A person who can dream.
A person who can learn.
A person who can contribute.
And a person who, like every one of us, will ultimately return to Allah.
None of us knows how long we will remain in this world.
One day, the professions we were proud of will not matter.
The clothes we wore will not matter.
The social status we protected will not matter.
The opinions of people we spent our lives trying to impress will not matter.
We will return to our Creator.
So perhaps we should be more careful about the way we treat people while we are still here.
I am not asking anyone to erase their religious beliefs.
I am not asking anyone to call something permissible when they believe it is prohibited.
I am not asking anyone to endorse deliberate sex transformation.
I am asking something much simpler:
Do not let disagreement erase humanity.
Let us challenge stereotypes without abandoning our principles.
Let us maintain religious boundaries without becoming cruel.
Let us create educational and professional opportunities without making dignity conditional on achievement.
And above all, let us learn to see the person before the label.
Because—
Different does not mean less.
Different does not mean inferior.
Different does not mean inhuman.
— A.K.
References
- World Health Organization (WHO), Gender and Health.
- World Health Organization (WHO), Gender incongruence and transgender health in the ICD.
- International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Resolution No. 251 (13/25), Sharia Ruling on Gender Transformation, 2023.
- Qur’an, Surah An-Nisa 4:119.
- Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5885.
- UNDP Pakistan, Challenging Transphobia: Being Different Is Not a Crime.
- UNDP Pakistan, Leave No One Behind — Aisha Mughal.
- UNDP Pakistan, Becoming Reem: A Journey of Exploration and Self-discovery.
- UNDP Pakistan, Bringing the Unheard Voices and Unwritten Stories to the Fore — Nisha Rao.
- Times of India, India Gets Its First Transgender College Principal — Dr. Manabi Bandopadhyay.