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'''Khanith''', or '''Khaneeth''' (خنيث;  ''khanīth''), is a vernacular Arabic term used in Oman and the Arabian Peninsula and denotes the [[Gender Roles|gender role]] ascribed to males who function sexually, and in some ways socially, as women. The word is closely related to the Arabic word mukhannath (مخنث "effeminate"), a Classical Arabic term referring to individuals with an effeminate nature.<ref>{{cite book|editor=George Haggerty|date=2000|title=Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures|publisher=Garland Publishing Inc.|isbn=0-8153-1880-4|pages=515–516}}</ref>

{{IfExistsLink|John Money||[[wikipedia:John Money|John Money]]}} summarizes material presented by Unni Wikan in an article titled ''Man becomes woman: Transsexualism in Oman as a key to gender roles.'' According to this account, the ''mukhannath'' is the "bottom" in a male same-sex relationship.<ref>''Man'' (N.S.) 12:304-319, 1977.</ref> Because of this, ''khanith'' are considered men by Omani standards and are often considered an "alternative gender role"<ref name="XANITH" /> — and sometimes considered as being [[transgender]] or [[Transvestism|transvestites]]<ref name="Wikan" /> — even though the ''khanith'' are still referred to by masculine names and are treated as male by the law.<ref name="XANITH">{{Cite book|last = Nanda|first = Serena|title = Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India|publisher = Wadsworth Publishing|year = 1990|pages = 130–131|url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Neither_Man_Nor_Woman.html?id=91obAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> Because of this confusion in terminology, many people refer to the ''khanith'' as ''khanith'' alone.<ref name="Wikan">{{cite book|last1=Wikan|first1=Unni|title=Resonance: Beyond the Words|date=16 January 2015|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226924489|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BvPH7kqL8vQC&pg=PA173|page=173}}</ref>

The ''khanith'' are considered a specific [[third gender]] category in Oman. And although they behave like women and have same-sex relationships with other men, at some stage they may one day "become a man" and give up their lifestyle for marriage and children.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Professor Pinar Ilkkaracan|date=2008|title=Deconstructing Sexuality in the Middle East: Challenges and Discourses|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qMihAgAAQBAJ|publisher=Ashgate Publishing Ltd|isbn=978-0-7546-7235-7|page=32}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Stephen O. Murray|date=2002|title=Homosexualities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GfH6Nc8HHFwC|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=0-226-55194-6|page=278}}</ref>

==References==
<References/>

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|last1=Money|first1=John|title=Lovemaps: Sexual/Erotic Health and Pathology, Paraphilia and Gender Transposition in Childhood, Adolescence and Maturity|date=1988|edition=reprint|publisher=Irvington|isbn=0-87975-456-7|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7zROAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=5 March 2015}}
* {{cite book|last1=Roscoe|first1=Will|last2=Murray|first2=Stephan|title=Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature|date=1997|publisher=New York University Press|isbn=9780814774687|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hQuHFPKp8L0C|edition=illustrated|accessdate=5 March 2015}}

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[[Category:Non-Western Genders]]
[[Category:Gender Identities]]
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