A UAE federal appeal court turned down the cases of three Emirati transgender men who had filed lawsuits to legally change their names and gender, Khaleej Times reported.
The complainants, who underwent sex change procedures in Europe, filed their cases in a bid to become registered as male in the government's national registry.
According to the English-language daily, all three transgender men had presented documents proving that European hospitals had recommended their procedures.
In his statement on the matter, their lawyer, Ali Abdullah Al Mansouri, said they underwent surgeries because they suffered from congenital defects and had masculine features and male characteristics.
"They feel that they are men trapped in female bodies"
The complainants' complex legal battle began when they filed a lawsuit with a federal first instance court in the UAE.
At the time, the court rejected their requests and denied them the permission needed for registration.
The transgender men then challenged the ruling with an appeal court, which upheld the first court's ruling.
In his argument in front of the appeal court, Al Mansouri stood against the initial decision passed by court, criticizing a medical committee that had issued a report stating his clients didn't need sex change procedures in the first place.
"The report by the medical committee was brief and didn't look extensively into the fact that the young women had suffered from this gender disorder since childhood," he said.
"They feel that they are men trapped in female bodies and they want to overcome this by getting court permission for sex change," he added.
Without this permission, the transgender individuals will remain women in all legal documents and will be unable to process new IDs.
Al Mansouri said that his clients will now challenge the second ruling in their case, moving ahead with the legal battle.
Transgenderism in the UAE
Under Federal Decree No. 4, which was >passed in the UAE in 2016, sex-change operations are allowed in the UAE if a person displays "psychological" and "physiological" signs of gender and sex disparity.
Before an individual is allowed to have the procedure though, a medical committee has to weigh in on the matter and state whether they qualify for the procedure or not.
The law also requires that the patient undergoing sex change surgery receives mental health care to "psychologically prepare" patients for the transition.
Just weeks after the ruling passed in 2016, a woman became the first individual in the UAE to file a lawsuit to obtain an order that would allow her to undergo a sex change procedure.