Islamic challenges to Pakistan’s transgender rights law

Pakistan broke ground in 2018 with its legislation of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act. This legislation was cutting-edge within South Asia and globally with the Act's declaration that gender identity inheres in the individual. The Act broadly defines a 'transgender person' to include intersex persons, khwaja siras (an Islamicate gender), and also 'any person whose gender identity or gender expression differs from the social norms and cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at the time of their birth.' Moreover, the Act goes on to declare that '[a] transgender person shall have a right to be recognized as per his or her selfperceived gender identity.'