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Struggle And Progress of The Third Sex

Updated September 5, 2022
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Struggle And Progress of The Third Sex essay

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Pakistan has long been the subject of much controversy in the realm of human rights and progressive social movements since its formation as an Islamic Republic following a violent colonial past, which ended in the Partition of India in 1947. Therefore, when the Pakistani government legalized a “third gender” category on ID cards and passports in 2017, the decision was met with much praise worldwide. This event was seen as “a milestone for trans activists”, implying that Pakistan was catching up to the west with this move (Maizland). While such media coverage is meant to advocate for marginalized communities worldwide and help to construct a positive image of progress in post-colonial nations such as Pakistan, I argue that it does more harm than good by forwarding one-dimensional, oversimplified stereotypes of developing nations always being a step behind the west and their former colonizers.

The prying eyes of the western media, due to lack of nuances in its coverage as well as lackluster efforts to contextualize the issues at play, are simply unable to adequately illustrate the complexity of the problems faced by marginalized communities in such cases. As a result, such media coverage further tokenizes and oversimplifies these issues in an attempt to provide a voice for the very people it victimizes. While I do not mean to trivialize the problems marginalized communities such as transgenders in Pakistan face on a nearly daily basis, I argue that a more nuanced and academic perspective is needed if we are to truly understand the issues that the LGBTQ+ community in Pakistan faces. The Pakistani LGBTQ+ community deserves to be understood in its own terms. The purpose of this paper is to provide a more academic tone in understanding the Pakistani transgender community in this manner.

Transgenders in Pakistan, known as the Khawaja Sira community, have had a vibrant role in South Asia, particularly in religious practices in Islamic mysticism, Sufism (Saeed et al. 1065). Saeed et al. found that a local community cleric whom they interviewed was very much receptive to transsexualism and went so far as to mention the example of a Sufi saint, Shah Husain, “who transgressed the boundaries of gender norms to embody playfulness in worship and religion” (1065).

Similarly, Alizai et al. claim that the Khawaja Sira community has historically been respected and integrated in South Asian society; before colonial rule, community members played active roles as “powerful administrators, political advisors, courtesans, warriors, and guardians of the harem” (1215-1216). While this claim does not necessarily imply that there were no gender-related issues before colonial rule – harems are an example of a problematic habit of South Asian monarchs – it does shed more light on what a more equitable society looked like in regards to treatment of the Khawaja Sira community.

British colonialism in South Asia introduced a series of laws, ideologies, and societal notions very much centered against the transgender community on the basis of “moral and political reasons” (Alizai et al. 1216). Colonial laws against the Khawaja Sira began to systematically deprive them of economic independence and human rights. These laws largely remain in place to this day, despite the originally very positive attitudes native South Asians had towards the Khawaja Sira community in the past. As a result, the influence of such negative attitudes towards gender-nonconforming individuals and communities persists in Pakistan to this day by means of outdated laws, which, as it should be mentioned, have paradoxically been struck down since then in former colonial countries, including Great Britain (Government Equalities Office).

While the colonial roots of discrimination against the Khawaja Sira community have been identified by studies such as the one conducted by Alizai et al., the issues the Khawaja Siras face today remain very much at hand. A wide variety of social factors should be considered while analyzing the community of Khawaja Siras of Pakistan, including the initial process of an individual identifying with this community and subsequent societal response. According to Saeed et al., family honor plays an important role in the decision for transgender individuals to “out” themselves as trans. Family honor encompasses a wide array of societal expectations and standards to which an individual must live up, such as marrying an individual of the opposite gender, associating gender strongly with sex assigned at birth, and behaving and carrying oneself the way a cisgender man or woman would.

Furthermore, both rural and urban communities in Pakistan today tend to be fiercely patriarchal; a transition for an individual perceived as a man to womanhood is considered directly against cultural social norms, and is certainly an “offense” that can gain a very poor reputation of honor for the family. According to Saeed et al. even the intention or attempt of having a “limited outing” would likely be unsuccessful in the majority of Pakistani families because of closely-knit family circles as well as the accompanying stigma associated with individuals of the LGBTQ+ community; furthermore, for a perceived “man” to want to identify as a woman, the transition is seen not only as directly anti-masculine, but also a “step down” to a lower social order and group.

While the reality of family politics seems a strong enough deterrent to transgender individuals to publicly associate with the Khawaja Sira community, there remain broader, public social issues as well, associated with the structure of this community as well as its ability to identify as itself without discrimination or hatred. According to Nisar, most members of the Khawaja Sira community are abandoned by their families early on in life upon “outing” themselves anyway; when they are able to find the local Khawaja Sira community, they are taken into a complex, structured model of kinship, learning, and surviving (64). Gurus, experienced heads of the Khawaja Sira circles, teach chelas, “student-children”, the ways and means of surviving as a publicly outed Khawaja Sira in the guru dera. Many members are trained on how to beg for money and ask for alms in urban environments, while others learn how to earn a living through dancing at parties and events or even resorting to sex work. These communities serve as a safe space for transgender individuals – here, cross-dressing, wearing make-up, dancing, and performing other aspects of “womanly” behavior are entirely allowed.

There are however, some problems associated with even these communities. Schooling, for example, is not prioritized or even encouraged for Khawaja Sira community members; thus, the result of the rigidity in a community structure even for a marginalized group is often times coerced sex and a forced “living”, such as the aforementioned dancing or begging. Furthermore, Khawaja Sira community members who are able to establish a living for themselves still face sexual harassment and abuse such as molestation and beatings (Alizai et al. 1224-1225). According to Alizai et al. and their interviewees, increased sexual activities, many of which are forced, also become a major problem for community members as time goes on upon acceptance into the guru dera. Furthermore, such activities increase the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections for Khawaja Sira members. Yet another problem associated with these circles is forced castration, often through illegal and therefore unsafe, even life-threatening, means.

While the recent legal recognition of the “third gender” category in Pakistan may serve as an encouraging sign of progress, the reality is much grimmer than the news that makes headlines, especially in the west. Nisar claims that this victory is symbolic, not necessarily a tangible step towards equality for marginalized groups in Pakistan; this is relevant especially in the context of understanding how recognition of the third gender can be perceived to be a threat to established traditions and norms prioritizing the patriarchy complex. Nisar found that most transgender individuals he surveyed did not want to place a target on their backs by registering legally as a person of the third gender.

The issues I have discussed in this paper barely scratch the surface of a very complex problem facing Pakistan. Indeed, the issues with social structure are not only limited to the transphobic side of Pakistani communities, but extend even to intricate systems of inclusion designed for victims of transphobia; even an attempt to escape from the problem leads almost certainly directly into yet another one. There remain, however, signs of hope. Pakistanis are indeed becoming more receptive to trans issues, and the stories of the Khawaja Sira community are being heard (Hadid). The change to come in the future will be slow and gradual – social change in such cases will always be more useful and desirable for Khawaja Sira members than empty, notional legal or political change; however, these changes will not be steps of “progress”. They will be strides of decolonization.

References

  1. Alizai, Aurangzaib, et al. “Impact of Gender Binarism on Hijras’ Life Course and Their Access to Fundamental Human Rights in Pakistan.” Journal of Homosexuality, vol. 64, no. 9, 2016, pp. 1214–1240., doi:10.1080/00918369.2016.1242337.
  2. Government Equalities Office. “National LGBT Survey: Summary Report.” GOV.UK, Government Equalities Office, www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-lgbt-survey-summary-report/national-lgbt-survey-summary-report.
  3. Hadid, Diaa. “Pakistan’s Transgender Women, Long Marginalized, Mobilize for Rights.” NPR, NPR, 10 Jan. 2018.
  4. Nisar, Muhammad Azfar. “(Un)Becoming a Man: Legal Consciousness of the Third Gender Category in Pakistan.” Gender & Society, vol. 32, no. 1, 2017, pp. 59–81., doi:10.1177/0891243217740097.
  5. Maizland, Lindsay. “Pakistan Just Issued Its First Passport with a Transgender Category.” Vox.com, Vox Media, 23 June 2017.
  6. Saeed, Abubakr, et al. “It’s Complicated: Sociocultural Factors and the Disclosure Decision of Transgender Individuals in Pakistan.” Journal of Homosexuality, vol. 65, no. 8, 2017, pp. 1051–1070., doi:10.1080/00918369.2017.1368766.
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