Zahhad and Ziya Paval -- a transgender couple from Kerala -- are gearing up to embrace parenthood. Ziya made the announcement on Instagram and claimed that it was the first case in India that a transman has conceived. The couple aged 23 and 21, respectively have been living together for the last three years and are expecting their baby next month.
Ziya, who was born as a man and changed into a woman and Zahhad, born a woman and transformed into a man had started their gender transition process two years back. But early last year, Zahhad stalled the journey to have the baby. Though Zahad's breasts were already removed, doctors said it would be possible to conceive as the uterus was still there.
Zahhad is eight months pregnant now, and plans to continue the gender transition process after delivery.
"We are about to realise my dream of becoming a mother and his dream of becoming a father. An eight-month-old foetus is now in (Zahhad’s) belly. From what we came to know, this is the first trans man’s pregnancy in India," Ziya said in the Instagram post.
"Though I was not a woman by birth or by my body, I had the feminine dream inside me to hear a baby calling me 'mother'....It has been three years since we are together. Like my dream of becoming a mother, he (Zahad) has a dream of becoming a father and today a life of eight months is moving in his belly with his full consent," the caption of the post further read.
The delivery will take place at the state-run Medical College and Hospital in Kozhikode, according to news agency ANI.