The Egyptian authorities appear to be exacerbating the difficulties faced by transgender individuals, who already contend with a prohibition on gender-affirming healthcare and various obstacles in obtaining legal gender recognition, compounded by the absence of protective measures and the active criminalization of their identities. Recent developments have intensified these challenges, as the Ministry of Interior has issued a new directive to heads of civil registries nationwide, effectively complicating the process for transgender individuals seeking legal gender recognition.
Until now, transgender individuals utilized a loophole within the Civil Status Law No. 143 of 1994, which mandates the establishment of committees in civil registries across all Egyptian governorates to evaluate requests from citizens for the correction of their civil records. In the absence of a clear legal framework for gender recognition, transgender individuals found refuge in these committees, which served as a vital means for altering their legal documentation in the country. Typically, these committees would require only medical records and a few other standard documents, such as criminal records, and their review process could take anywhere from one to six months, often concluding with granting the requested changes.
In rare instances where an application was rejected, the matter would be referred to the judiciary, particularly the country’s administrative courts. The judiciary, alongside Egypt’s highest Islamic authorities, such as Al-Azhar, holds a shared belief that transgender individuals should not undergo medical transitions, advocating instead for therapeutic interventions. This perspective restricts medical interventions exclusively to cases of intersexuality. Consequently, the judiciary has established DNA tests as valid evidence for either granting or denying legal gender recognition. The rationale behind this is straightforward: if Islamic Sharia does not permit gender-affirming healthcare for transgender individuals while limiting it to intersex individuals, and considering that the medical treatments for both groups are analogous, DNA evidence—particularly chromosomal tests—becomes essential, as intersex DNA is unique and transgender individuals cannot alter their chromosomes, even after transitioning.
Despite the judicial and religious biases against transgender individuals, it appears that until recently, the Ministry of Interior adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. This situation is underscored by the remarks of Cairo 52’s lawyer, Mahmoud Othman:
“I believe it was a precarious situation for the Ministry of Interior; individuals applying for legal gender recognition are often far along in their transitions and may have completed surgeries. Thus, the Ministry faced a challenging decision: to deny them and consequently create a situation where individuals are legally classified as female but physically male, or vice versa, or to permit legal gender recognition to maintain social cohesion. Until recently, they chose the latter.”
Recent developments have significantly altered the landscape surrounding legal gender recognition in Egypt, particularly following a notable case involving a transgender man who successfully obtained such recognition. The narrative intensified when it was revealed that this individual had previously been married and had given birth to two children prior to transitioning. Although the individual divorced in 2016 before receiving legal gender recognition, an effort was made to amend the children’s birth certificates to reflect his new name and gender, thereby designating two fathers on the documents. While the Ministry of Interior may tolerate the legal gender recognition of transgender individuals to promote social cohesion, it has been unwilling to accept the listing of two males on a child’s birth certificate, as this would imply a formal acknowledgment of same-sex relationships within the country.
This request escalated to the senior ranks of the Ministry of Interior, culminating in the Deputy Minister for Legal Issues referring it in 2022 to the Egyptian State Commissioners (ESC), a consultative judicial body within the Administrative Courts system. This body is tasked with assisting judges in adjudicating cases by providing objective judicial opinions and legal interpretations on matters that lack legal clarity.
In July 2024, the ESC finally issued a legal fatwa on the matter. While the fatwa warrants extensive analysis, it is crucial to highlight that it expressed profound disapproval regarding the transgender man’s initial legal gender recognition. The ESC called for the Ministry of Interior to revoke this recognition and to tighten procedures surrounding legal gender recognition to limit access solely to intersex individuals, expressly excluding transgender individuals. Unsurprisingly, the ESC referenced positions held by Al-Azhar as well as established judicial principles relevant to the issue. Consequently, the Ministry of Interior absorbed much of the criticism from the ESC, having inadvertently overlooked both judicial and religious principles concerning legal gender recognition. This oversight raised concerns regarding the potential for a child to be recognized as having two fathers, a scenario deemed entirely unacceptable by Egyptian authorities.
In response, the Ministry of Interior took steps to rectify this situation by reinforcing the process for obtaining legal gender recognition and implementing stricter scrutiny for applicants. A new directive, No. 25/2024, was issued, outlining two major stipulations. First, individuals seeking legal gender recognition must submit their applications at the civil registry corresponding to their place of birth rather than their current registration location. This measure was introduced in light of rumors that individuals were changing their addresses to apply at civil registries characterized by more lenient procedures. Second, the granting of legal gender recognition is now conditioned upon comprehensive forensic examinations of applicants, including DNA tests to ascertain whether they are transgender or intersex.
The consequences of this directive are already being felt, as Cairo 52 has documented 10 cases of individuals being rejected due to DNA testing indicating that they are transgender and not intersex. However, it remains unclear whether the directive has been implemented nationwide, as these cases are concentrated in the Delta region and the Alexandria Governorate. The impacts of this directive will be catastrophic for transgender individuals, as highlighted by Hamada, a trans man and one of our clients, who expressed his frustration:
“All my friends managed to change their documents early this year; I underwent the surgeries and applied as normal. Suddenly, they sent me to the Civil Registry of my birth, and I found myself in front of a doctor who informed me that I hold female chromosomes and, therefore, am classified as a woman. Look at me: I have no breasts, I have a beard, my voice is masculine, and I wear men’s clothes, but they said I am a woman. They rejected my application; now my life is ruined, and I don’t know what to do.”
Closing this loophole means that the legal recognition of transgender individuals’ gender will become exclusively a judicial matter. After a rejection, applicants have no avenue to object except through the country’s administrative courts. Given the courts’ track record and the recent legal fatwas from the ESC, it is safe to say that, if this directive is fully implemented across the country, transgender individuals will be forced to live in legal limbo indefinitely, without any means to change their legal documents. Soad, a trans woman and a client of Cairo 52, spoke to me after her application was rejected:
“We, as trans women, are already outcasts in society. We have limited access to employment, education, and housing. Changing our legal documents was the only thing we lived for. We all held high hopes that once we changed our legal documents, we could live a semi-normal life; even if we lost our families, at least we could move around freely without fearing state and social harassment due to our national IDs being inconsistent with who we are. Now, with this directive, the country is essentially handing us death sentences without even standing trial.
Perhaps Soad framed it best when she stated that with this new direction, transgender individuals are being handed a death sentence or, at the very least, a deportation order from their own country. Several people I spoke to indicated that the closure of avenues to obtain legal gender recognition will leave them with no option but to leave the country. However, not all are privileged enough to relocate; thus, many will remain in Egypt and face further social and state harassment and violence.
The Egyptian government should reverse this decision, along with other negative decisions introduced in the past decade, including the ban on doctors providing gender-affirming healthcare for transgender individuals. Such anti-human rights decisions are not solutions; they only exacerbate the plight of transgender individuals in Egypt. Transgender people are citizens of Egypt and should be guaranteed full human rights under the Egyptian constitution and international human rights, which Egypt has ratified, equal to those of their cisgender counterparts. Ensuring comprehensive human rights—particularly concerning access to the highest standards of attainable healthcare, anti-discrimination measures, equality, and legal gender recognition—will enable transgender individuals to make meaningful contributions to Egyptian society, economy, and politics across all sectors. Transgender people do not pose a threat; rather, they are individuals eager to be integral members of society and to actively participate in it. The creation of obstacles pushes them out of various spaces, leading to their marginalization and the denial of basic human rights, relegating them to second-class citizens with limited prospects for living in the country.
