JEDDAH, 7 July 2006 — All her life Najwa had been considered to be a bit of a tomboy. For 18 years of her life she had grown up uninterested in what other girls her age were in to. She wasn’t bothered about putting on makeup, getting her hair done and doing what her girlfriends were doing, the daily Al-Watan reported.
In fact Najwa was so disconnected from her female counterparts that as she came close to puberty, instead of developing a curvy figure and assets reflecting her femininity, Najwa became muscular, grew facial hair and most of all had a gruff man-like voice.
In fact apart from her feminine name there was nothing that made her feel female at all. As Najwa grew older and became more and more aware of her surroundings and environment, she seriously began contemplating the possibility of her actually being a man in the body of a woman.
With the support of her family, Najwa began visiting doctors and it was then that she discovered that she was a guy rather than a gal and had been mistakenly registered as a woman at birth because of the absence of male genitalia. The doctors explained that she didn’t even have female reproductive organs.
It was at this point, at the age of 18, that Najwa underwent an operation and officially became Abdul Rahman. Now at the age of 21, Najwa or as we should say Abdul Rahman, has, with the help and support of his family, managed to overcome the emotional difficulties associated with his situation.
Abdul Rahman says that he has very little memory of his previous life as a woman. He said that coming from a conservative family, as a girl he didn’t spend much time outside the house and now as a man hopes to pursue an education and get married.
“I am going to continue my education which I stopped because of the operation. Currently I work at a mobile store and I hope that one day I will have my own store,” he said.
After undergoing the operation, many of Abdul Rahman’s female friends telephoned him asking him to erase their numbers from his cell phone and to never call them again. Some of his female friends still come to the shop where he works to ask him how he is.
Abdul Rahman’s mother recalls when Abdul Rahman was 15 a prospective marriage partner came asking for his hand in marriage. “We turned the man away because Najwa just didn’t seem to be very womanlike. He wasn’t even getting monthly periods,” she said.
Dr. Muhammad Al-Ghadi, a Jeddah psychiatrist, said, “Such cases need extra special care. The people involved need to be rehabilitated into society and it is important for the person’s family to take an active role in this.”
