Some Hope Still, For The khwajasirahs Of Pakiland 
Activists of hope
Dawn
Xari Jalil
Sept 23, 2018
It was only after Neeli Rana and the rest of the ‘party’ were beaten blue during a ceremony that she vowed to turn to activism.
“We were at an event somewhere in Lahore,” she recalls. “The night was going fine until an argument started about whether we should next dance to a Punjabi song or an Indian song. In this confusion someone started playing an Indian song, and we began dancing to change the subject. The next thing we knew we were being punched and kicked all over!”
The Paki tendency to resolve disputes with "might is right" !
Neeli says they were dragged out by their hair. “We shouted, ‘Please! We are only here to dance!’ but they just would not stop beating us up!” The men were not only drunk on liquor but on power, too.The whole night, this group of transgender women who had been invited to add to the festivities, were instead locked in a room, and beaten black and blue.
Was Madame Mazari- one of their own - not invited to the "party"
The matter eventually ended and they all went home bruised and heartbroken. But Neeli stewed in anger, for days and days, and many sleepless nights, too. The transgender community of Pakistan faces all kinds of violence and discrimination from society, every day in any given place. In the days when their singing and dancing was more common, such incidents were common, too.
Today, because of such violence associated with these events, many have stopped dancing especially in front of strangers. For those engaged in sex work, the sexual violence is even worse.
For all the "empowerment" news in the Paki press, one would have thought that the transgenders have left their "main line of business" behind and branched into other more exotic areas of operations like internship at the Paki Supreme Court
.
But not all trans people are limited to this kind of work. Most of the time they are vulnerable simply because they are who they are: different from the majority of society.
Peshawar - in Imran run PTI Party - is considered the "most dangerous city for the
Khwajasirahs of Pakiland !
In the recent past, ...
Their first major achievement came when they became officially “recognised” as a third gender in 2009, as per the directive of then Chief Justice of Pakistan,( the squint eyed and extremely corrupt ! ) Iftikhar Chaudhry. Since then the path to finally pushing for a Bill to be enacted has been hard work. His successor, the ego-istic Saquib and gone one step further than his Pakjabi "buddy", and offered "internships" to qualified transgenders at the Paki Supreme Court !
Understandably, there was great cause for celebration when the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018 was approved and passed by the National Assembly. Those who had worked hard for it could not believe their ears when they heard the news. Finally, they too could live like humans.
Celebrations are premature ! Main stream Pakis as well as the Mullah Brigade still want to live in the Golden Age Of Malsi, where such equality was unheard of
But the struggle has been long and arduous. Some completed the journey, some never even reached halfway. Others made deep realisations within themselves. And more than often, the reasons for all of these was the fact that they led unhappy lives, away from a biological family who had disowned them at a young age for being different.
For a khwajasirah or transgender person, violence and discrimination is something they have experienced since childhood. From early years, when family members push for their male child to adopt more boyish ways rather than playing with dolls, or as in Neeli’s case, when she saw her father playing with all her siblings except her, a sense of ostracisation settles in. Ignored in childhood, the boy is later shown aggression for not conforming to the norms.
“My father was cruel to me,” recalls Goshi, taking a long drag on her cigarette as she speaks. “When I used to go outside there was a lot of hooting and name calling and they called me ‘khussra’ [often a derogatory term] openly. When my brothers heard this, they beat me and said I should stay at home.”
Even when they are thrown out of their homes or run away, they learn to live life dodging threats, and learning how to size up the people they meet. But more than often, despite the level of bullying they face, the attitude of the khwajasirah community has been to ignore these incidents, however injured it leaves them. These were the norms when Neeli started out as an activist, defending the lives and security of other transgender women.
Today, in contrast, the transgender community lives with much more hope than before, even though they are still faced with a large number of violent incidents and harassment. But unlike before, many more members of the transgender community have not only chosen to ‘come out’ confidently but have also decided to raise their voices against injustice. With the passing of the Transgender Act this year, a door of hope has been opened: a new future is entirely possible.
Without a doubt, the trans community in Pakistan exists on the margins of society. But the transgenders have been part of the subcontinent’s history for centuries and enjoyed far better fortunes than today’s poverty.
Historically the transgender community comprised hijrras, eunuchs, Kothis, Aravanis, Jogappas, Shiv-Shakthis, etc. Records show that eunuchs have existed at since since the ninth century BC. The word ‘eunuch’ has roots in Greek and means ‘keeper of the bed’ — castrated men were in popular demand to guard women’s quarters of royal households. Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism — and it can be inferred, Vedic culture — all recognised three genders.
A short history of the Hijras for the uninitiated .
“In the Mughal era, khwajasirahs served as army generals, harem guards and advisers to emperors and queens,” says activist Mehlab Jameel.“It was with the onset of British rule and the fragmentation of the Mughal courts, where ‘hijrras’ [as they were referred to] who were given so much respect, were soon stripped of their powerful positions and no longer participated in government. In fact, the British Raj tried to get rid of whomever they held in ‘breach of public decency.’”
Accounts by early European travellers show that they were repulsed by the sight of hijrras. They could notunderstand why they were given so much respect in the royal courts and other institutions. Then, in the second half of the 19th century, the British colonial administration went so far as to criminalise the hijrra community and denied them their civil rights.
In 2009, the Supreme Court gave recognition to a third gender and ordered that they be given computerised national identity cards (CNICs).
“I am eternally thankful to former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry who gave these directives,” says Ashi Butt. Butt, who proudly claims that her ID card name is ‘Nusratara Ashi’, lives in Lahore’s Old City in a cramped two-room upper portion with a fellow transgender, Tariq, whom she occasionally admonishes. He was kicked out of his home when he was young and while he is in his 30s now, he has the brain of an eight-year-old, she says. She keeps Tariq under her own protection, though. This protective instinct, and the fact that finding a home for a transperson is close to impossible, is what led Ashi to be one of the most prominent transgender activists around.
Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan have recognised the third gender on specific documents, but mostly implementation measures have been inconsistent. India is the only South Asian country, according to the UNDP report, whose Supreme Court decision affirms transgender people’s rights to identify as male, female or as a third gender identity. However, eligibility criteria are still imposed through administrative practices. This includes requiring evidence of gender-affirming surgeries in order to amend details on a passport.
Slowly, though, progress is being made. It will take a long time for Pakistan to become free of any kind of discrimination and violence towards not just transgender people, but also women, but when solid laws are present, there is more than a ray of hope.
As events in Peshawar show, enacting a Law is easy, changing people's attitude takes much longer time !
and is providing promising results. Once we are adept in development of satellite technology, we can venture out in other arenas as well,” he says.