Pakistan’s Hijra Community to see official recognition

Sana Malik

A small ruling, with strong social significance made its way into news headlines this week. Pakistan’s Supreme Court wills to recognize the plight of eunuchs, or hijras. Unreliable census numbers suggest that there are at least 400 000 Pakistanis that identify as transgendered and they are subject to some of the fiercest persecution in the country. Despite strong prejudice, this has been a neglected community from official eyes for as long as Pakistan has existed, donning this week’s ruling, at least at a psychological level, as at least a symbolic attempt at integration.

It will take an much more than an official ruling to change stiff perceptions of gender roles in the country. However, the official recognition is enough to generate optimism and decry the humiliation faced by the hijra community, generally forced to resign to the most menial jobs, or take to the streets to dance and beg for change.

Although the hijra community has always had some influence in Pakistani popular culture - from songstresses, to television talk show hosts, talking about a “third gender” in Pakistan is as taboo and disgraceful as ever. I am well acquainted with the derogatory and inflammatory names and perceptions Pakistanis from all statuses hold of the hijra. When one is being cursed, comparisons to eunuchs are almost always made. While the hijra are systemically forced into the streets as entertainers at the peril of humiliation and police excesses, they allow a full frontal view of sexuality and discrimination among Pakistan’s liberal elites, conservative working class and everything in between. As Basim Usmani suggests, publicly this is a small win for the eunuchs of Pakistan, even as privately they struggle to find real acceptance in Pakistani society.

—–

SANA MALIK is one of the founders and editors of This is Worldtown.  Born in England and raised between there, Pakistan and Canada, she is constantly intrigued by the quirks and accompanying baggage of immigrant life. She lives in London where she is completing her Master’s in International Public Health.