Muslim leader denies issuing progressive fatwa on gender surgery

PinkNews.co.uk – By Staff Writer – PinkNews.co.uk

A Sunni Muslim cleric in Kuwait has denied media reports that he had become the first religious authority in the country to approve gender reassignment surgery.

Iran-based English language channel Press TV had claimed Sheikh Rashid Saad Alalimi “is in defiance of a 2007 legislation which made it illegal for Kuwaitis to dress as members of the opposite sex.”

However, the Sheikh said today in a letter in a Kuwaiti newspaper that he had not issued a fatwa, or formal legal judgement, and the letter referred to by Press TV and other Iranian media was private correspondence.