Kuala Terengganu (The Star/ANN) - Mohd Ashraf Hafiz Abdul Aziz, 25, has died - and so has Aleesha Farhana, the woman he wanted to be.
Doctors at the Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital, where the deceased was admitted on Friday after a heart problem and low blood pressure, said the patient was suffering from unstable angina with cardiogenic shock. The patient died at 4.55am Saturday.
The deceased had failed in a bid to carry a woman¿s name in the identity card after undergoing a sex change in Thailand two years ago.
The family, adhering to a High Court ruling, buried the deceased as a man at the Kampung Seberang Takir Muslim cemetery at 4.30pm.
Mohd Ashraf stirred the nation when the court rejected an application on July 18 to change his gender and name to Aleesha Farhana Abdul Aziz.
Judge Datuk Mohd Yazid Mustafa ruled there was no legal statute to grant the application based solely on a sex-change operation.
He said a person¿s gender was determined at birth and could not be changed through surgery.
Mohd Ashraf¿s father Abdul Aziz Ahmad, 60, said: ¿All close family members were at his side up to the last moments of his life. It is a big loss to us."
Mohd Ashraf¿s mother, who only wished to be known as Kak Yah, 51, said her transsexual son had placed an order for a baju kurung Pahang and had been excited about wearing it for Hari Raya.
In Kuala Lumpur, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said she was saddened that her ministry did not have the chance to counsel Mohd Ashraf.
¿In Mohd Ashraf¿s case, he knew our doors were open and that we were there if he needed us.
¿We were concerned for him but we could not force him to come to us," she said after chairing the Wanita Umno supreme council meeting Saturday.
Meanwhile, about 50 people held a candle-light vigil for Mohd Ashraf outside the Malaysian Bar Council Building in Lebuh Pasar Besar here last night.
Social activist and Seksualiti Merdeka co-founder Pang Khee Teik, who organised the event, said they wanted to highlight that Aleesha¿s rights for justice had been denied.
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