![Malaysia court voids same-sex marriage](https://www.jurist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/jurist-white-text.png)
[JURIST] A Malaysian judge has ruled that a five-year marriage between two local citizens is void, after finding that the husband is actually a woman, according to a local report [The Star report] on Tuesday. The judge made his ruling after a physician conducted an examination on the husband, concluding that she was in fact a woman. The couple was charged under the Malacca Islamic Family Enactment 2002 with being in a same-sex marriage and has been given two weeks to appeal. Reuters has more.
Most Muslim countries do not recognize same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive], and strict Islamic practice rejects homosexual unions. Earlier this year, a Pakistan judge gave three-year prison sentences [JURIST report] for perjury to two women who have publicly acknowledged their same-sex relationship in separate women's prisons after one initially claimed to be a man. The Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] one month later granted the couple bail [JURIST report] and agreed to hear an appeal.