Change your sex, improve your legal standing?

Here's an unexpected news item from Reuters:

Al Watan newspaper said the five women underwent sex change surgery abroad over the past 12 months after they developed a "psychological complex" due to male domination.

Women in Saudi Arabia, which adopts an austere interpretation of Islam, are not allowed to drive or even go to public places unaccompanied by a male relative.

It's surprising that these women were able to get outside the country to take such drastic steps . . . given the extreme segregation that most women in Saudi Arabia are subject to. What's perhaps even more surprising is that the religious hierarchy hasn't immediately jumped to either forbid the practice, nor (yet) to punish the women:

The newspaper quoted a senior cleric as saying the authorities have to fill what he described as a legal vacuum by issuing laws against sex change operations.

An interior ministry official told al Watan such cases are examined by religious authorities, and sometimes by psychologists, but those who undergo sex change are never arrested.