It's an article of faith in the gender debate that trans people suffer disproportionately from oppression and violence here in the UK. In Pakistan, meanwhile, it happens to be true. From Kunwar Khuldune Shahid in the Spectator - Do ‘Terf hunters’ care for Pakistan’s persecuted trans people?
As the transgender war plays out online in Britain, a far bloodier turn of events is unfolding in Pakistan. This month, transgender activist Gul Panra was shot dead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital Peshawar. Another transgender woman, named Tariq alias Chahat, who had joined Panra to perform at a wedding, was also wounded in the attack. Panra's death adds to the grim toll of at least 69 transgender persons who have been killed in this province alone in the past five years. Yet many of those fighting the gender wars online are too busy calling out 'Terfs' to speak out on behalf of those dying thousands of miles away.
Despite the lack of support from abroad, Pakistan's transgender community has nonetheless managed to achieve hard-fought successes. The landmark Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act granted the community basic human rights in 2018; while the national census counted transgender people for the first time in 2017.
In some ways then, Pakistan has been ahead of the curve on gender rights: in 2012, Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) first issued identity cards allowing the transgender community to identify as a third gender, encompassing transgender male, transgender female and intersex identities.
Even so, despite these milestones, transgender people in Pakistan continue to be brazenly marginalised. For some transgender activists, this includes being sidelined from progressive movements locally, and being downright abandoned by the global trans movement.
In a parallel world to Gul Panra's, where words are violence, and where tweets muster more outrage than physical violence, transgender activists here question whether those burning JK Rowling’s books would spare some angst for transgender people being murdered. Amnesty International UK, Liberty and Human Rights Watch released a furious statement last week condemning the UK government's response to the Gender Recognition Act consultation. But shouldn't they instead focus their efforts on those dying for their identities?
Indeed for Pakistan's Hijra, or third gender community, the relentless focus by the Western trans movement on transgender identity theories is perceived as a hindrance rather than a help.
I'm not sure, mind, how useful the comparison is between trans women here and the Hijra in South Asia. From different cultures come different conceptions of gender. The Hijra, or Khawaja Sira in Pakistan, have a long history behind them, and are generally seen as a third gender - unlike here, where trans women insist that they're women, and the gender critical insist that they're men.
There a useful Wiki entry on the subject:
In the Indian subcontinent, Hijra are eunuchs, intersex people, and transgender people. Also known as Aravani, Aruvani, Jagappa, or (derogatorily) Chakka, the hijra community in India prefer to call themselves Kinnar or Kinner, referring to the mythological beings that excel at song and dance. In Pakistan, they are called Khawaja Sira, the equivalent of transgender in the Urdu language.
Hijras are officially recognized as third gender in the Indian subcontinent, being considered neither completely male nor female. Hijras have a recorded history in the Indian subcontinent since antiquity, as suggested by the Kama Sutra.
Many hijras live in well-defined and organised all-hijra communities, led by a guru. These communities have consisted over generations of those who are in abject poverty or who have been rejected by or fled their family of origin. Many work as sex workers for survival.
The word "hijra" is a Hindustani word. It has traditionally been translated into English as "eunuch" or "hermaphrodite", where "the irregularity of the male genitalia is central to the definition". However, in general hijras are born male, only a few having been born with intersex variations. Some Hijras undergo an initiation rite into the hijra community called nirvaan, which involves the removal of the penis, scrotum and testicles.
Since the late 20th century, some hijra activists and non-government organizations (NGOs) have lobbied for official recognition of the hijra as a kind of "third sex" or "third gender", as neither man nor woman. Hijras have successfully gained this recognition in Bangladesh and are eligible for priority in education and certain kinds of low paid jobs. In India, the Supreme Court in April 2014 recognized hijras, transgender people, eunuchs, and intersex people as a 'third gender' in law. Nepal, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have all legally accepted the existence of a third gender, with India, Pakistan and Nepal including an option for them on passports and certain official documents.
And there's a gallery here at LenScratch - scroll down below the women living as men in Albania. The strikingly elegant hijra on display show another significant difference to trans women here, who, frankly, can tend to look like blokes with a wig and a dress and an over-enthusiastic application of make-up.