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Xanith, also written as "khanith" is a vernacular Arabic term for both "mukhannath" and "khuntha". "Mukhannath" refers to individuals witha gender identity that is discordant with their visible sexual organs. They are characterized as "effeminate", "not clearly male," and as people who was
"born as a male" and who nevertheless feel, behave, and (in most cases) dress like a female. "Khuntha" refers to intersexed human beings.
John Money summarizes material presented by U. Wiktan in an article entitled "Man becomes woman: Transsexualism in Oman as a key to
gender roles." (Man (N.S.) 12:304-319, 1977.) According to that account, the xanith (pronounced hanith) is the gynecomimetic partner in
a homosexual relationship. A gynecomimetic individual may retain his public status as a man, despite his departure in dress and behavior from
a socio-normal male role, providing that he also gives proof of a legal marriage to a woman and proof of having consummated that marriage. The
clothing of these individuals must be intermediate between that of a male and a female. His social role includes the freedom to associate with
women in the entire range of their social interactions, including singing with them at a wedding (instead of playing a musical instrument as would
a male), but he can travel about unaccompanied as would a male, live unaccompanied, be hired as a domestic servant, and to be hired by men
as a prostitute. There is no element of feminizing the body, either by surgical or pharmacological means.
(See: John Money, Lovemaps, Prometheus Book, 1993. BooksEnthsiast.com.)
See also: List of transgender-related topics
Transgender in non-western cultures
Arabic culture
