DUBAI: An Indian woman who lived in Dubai has become a man to marry a woman who was a man. Yes, you read that right. Aarav Appukuttan, told XPRESS from his hometown in Kerala that he is ready to tie the knot with Sukanyeah Krishna, who was earlier Chandru.
The bizarre marriage is scheduled for November and the couple are looking forward to a happy married life in Dubai.
“I have lived in Dubai for 13 years and am hoping to return with my wife once we have sorted out our new passports and other essential documents,” said 46-year-old Appukuttan who worked here as a property agent before undergoing a sex change.
Home-coming
Appukuttan said he is hopeful he will be able to return to the city he called home where sex correction surgery is permissable under under Federal Law No. 4 of 2016 concerning Medical Liability.
“The surgical procedure by which a transgender person’s physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble that of their identified gender is permitted, if it is part of a treatment for gender dysphoria in transgender people,” says the law. Last year two women filed cases at the Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance, seeking permission to be allowed to become men after undergoing sex-change operations abroad.
Appukuttan said he met Sukanyeah four years ago when he had gone to a hospital in Kerala to get himself treated for a mild flu.
“I was still a woman and she was still a man, yet it was love at first sight. We stuck instant rapport and soon began dating each other,” he recalled.
Sukanyeah, 22, who works as a web developer in Bengaluru said, she was so smitten by Appukuttan during the courtship that she decided to spend the rest of her life with him.
“He was just the man I was waiting for,” she said in a phone interview.
Appukuttan said since July 2016 he has undergone three surgeries including one last month to get his sex reassigned. His fiance Sukanyeah went under the knife in May this year, and needs two more surgeries to complete the gender tranformation. Sukanyeah said she realised her gender did not correspond with her birth sex when she was a child. “I was always fond of dolls and felt more comfortable in the company of girls,” she said.
Appukuttan said their 23-year age difference will not be a “barrier to their lasting happiness”
The love struck couple said they will have to adopt children as it’s not possible to concieve after sex change.
What the UAE law says:
Gender reassignment surgery is permissble in the UAE under Federal Law No. 4 of 2016 concerning Medical Liability, provided it’s for ‘sex correction’ surgery not ‘sex change’.
The law allows for sex reassignment surgery for individuals whose sexual orientation is ambiguous and sexual aspects are different from their physiological, biological and genetic characteristics.
