Transsexuality and the criminal law

• Main Author: Mohamad Yunus, Mohamad Ismail
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Royal Malaysia Police 2012
• Subjects: K Law (General); KD England and Wales
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/50510/1/PENGAMAN_BIL_1%3A2012_80%3A84-_Transsexuality.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/50510/
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

By virtue of section 375 of the Malaysian Penal Code (MPC), it is clearly stated that the offence of rape could only be committed by a man (as defined in section 10 MPC) as principal upon a woman (as defined in section 10 MPC) as victim. This provision highlights that in Malaysia, the law of rape is entirely gender delineated. A question might arise, how about if a biological male who underwent the gender reassignment surgery or transsexual operation and consequently become a person with an artificial female genitalia and the issue is whether that person would remain as a male for the purposes of criminal law, and thus could not be the victim of the offence of rape?