TaipeiTimes.com – Agencies, Lahore, Pakistan
Shezina Tariq, who married Shumail Raj, a woman who had a sex-change operation
A Pakistani court sent a couple to jail yesterday on the grounds that the husband was actually a woman and that same-sex marriages were against Islam.
The husband, Shumail Raj, 31, had sex-change surgery and told a newspaper that a cousin was aware of the condition and agreed to marry because she feared being forced into wedlock with someone else.
The two were arrested last week on the orders of the High Court in Lahore, which said Raj had earlier lied to the court, 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 said.