A small victory for Pakistani's transgender
Reporting from Rawalpindi, Pakistan - Wearing a red knit bonnet, matching
lipstick and a shawl over her large shoulders and muscular forearms, Nanni
gently sought to clear up some confusion as the call to prayer sounded from
a nearby mosque.
"I'm a 'she-male,' " said Nanni, a kind of den mother for a dozen or so
fellow hijra, or transgender people, in a rundown neighborhood of Rawalpindi
"We all are."
Sharing two small rooms halfway along a dark dirt alley and up a steep
flight of steps, Nanni's family is one made, not born: a community of
outcasts forced together after their families abandoned them, their
indeterminate sex unnerving this patriarchal society -- especially the
ascendant Pakistani Taliban.
"We are God's creatures," Nanni said. "Even if many people don't accept us,
we feel the same here in the den as if we are of the same blood. We do
everything to take care of one another."
Dominating one room was a rough-hewn double bed that the dozen or so hijra,
some more than 6 feet tall, use in shifts. The walls were covered with
pictures of hijra beauties of the Mughal era that ended more than a century
ago, a time when transgender people were not only accepted but also enjoyed
significant power and prestige.
Asked whether the hijra family members were all congenital eunuchs and
hermaphrodites, Nanni, 35, insisted that they were all born that way. To
prove the point, she ordered Akri, a hermaphrodite whose broad face was
softened by mascara and a scarf, to drop her traditional outfit and show her
private parts.
Hijra have long been stigmatized and subject to discrimination and abuse in
the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, with its rigorously defined roles for men
and women. But in a landmark decision in December, the Supreme Court ordered
that they be protected from police harassment, be eligible for a separate
gender category on ID cards and be recognized under inheritance laws.
"We need proper rights," said Noor, a 21-year-old member of Nanni's
household. "No one listens to our concerns."
Although nascent legal status is a first step, social acceptance is likely
to take far longer. Noor and the others said police officers and residents
often beat, harass, rob and sexually abuse them.
"You get used to it," said Nanni, who as the guru, or head of the hijra
family, is combination parent, boss and enforcer. "It only shows how stupid
their mentality is."
The hijra say they feel especially vulnerable when it comes to the Taliban,
which decries singing, dancing and open displays of femininity. "We are most
afraid of them," Noor said. "We're sparrows of paradise, and they don't like
us."
The court decision to bolster transgender rights, however, has raised
questions of what it means to be a hijra.hijra. The term refers to a born
eunuch or hermaphrodite, a group seen as marginally acceptable because their
birth was God's will. But many others even less well-regarded in society --
homosexuals, transvestites, bisexuals and transsexuals -- also claim hijra
status.
Some sociologists and legal experts have suggested that eligibility for new
ID cards or other benefits might require a physical exam and test to see how
claimants urinate.
Wary of being harassed or attacked, Noor initially shied away before
agreeing to tell her story: How she was born a hermaphrodite and kicked out
of the house at 11 as puberty dawned. How she hooked up with Nanni and the
other hijra.
"They're natural," said Noor, without prompting, referring to her breasts.
In South Asia, hijra traditionally have made their living by dancing and
singing for tips for weddings, the birth of sons and housewarmings, often
walking a thin line between begging and extortion. They frequently show up
uninvited and refuse to leave unless paid.
Many in this conservative society believe hijra have a direct line to God, a
trade-off for their inability to procreate. So even as society has
ostracized them, it's also paid them amply, fearful of their curses, taunts
and, in extreme cases, public display of genitalia at celebratory events.
Among their techniques, said Claire Pamment, theater department director at
the National College of Arts Rawalpindi, is to praise and flatter the
virility of the men in the wedding audience. But if the rupees don't flow,
their jibes take on an emasculatory tone.
Recent social changes in the region, including urbanization, have eroded
their niche, however. Superstition is waning, competing entertainment is
proliferating and more weddings are held in hotels that hijra can't easily
get into.
"No one invites us to entertain anymore," Nanni said. "It's difficult to
make ends meet."
That's forced more hijra into sex work. Noor, initially reluctant to discuss
it, eventually acknowledged that she's a prostitute, "but only if I like the
client." She said she makes $3 to $5 per visit.
The golden era for hijrahijra was during the time of the Mughal monarchs,
from 1526 to 1857, when eunuchs and hermaphrodites oversaw the harem, often
becoming key advisors.
"Our forefathers served the Mughals in the palaces, and people wanted to
learn from them because they were great people," Nanni said, gesturing at a
picture of a Mughal dancer. "God willing, we'll one day recover our respect,
with the help of the courts and the media."
After 1870, however, British morality laws such as the Criminal Tribes Act
and the Dramatic Performance Act restricted the activities of hijra and
their inheritance and other rights, tarring them as "sodomites."
"They had been well respected, but the British were unable to conceive of it
" said Humaira Jami, a psychology student at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam
University who is writing her doctoral thesis on hijra.
The stigma attached to them since then has left them increasingly vulnerable
to theft, attack and abuse in Pakistan's male-dominated and often-feudal
society.
"I do not like them," said Parvez, 25, a laborer in Rawalpindi who gave only
one name. "They pollute people's morality."
When hijra are attacked, police sometimes not only refuse to file reports,
several hijra said, they're often the tormentors, demanding bribes or worse.
Attorney Aslam Khaki, a longtime advocate who filed the Supreme Court
challenge, said two hijra recently told him they were falsely arrested by
police, then taken to a dorm for off-duty officers where they were sexually
abused by a dozen of them. With few willing to stand up and protect them,
the job often falls to the guru.
In a tony part of Rawalpindi, a housekeeper showed visitors into a
high-ceilinged mansion owned by Almas "Bobby" Shah, 48, one of the city's
biggest gurus, who said about 100 hijra answered to her.
After a suitable time, she appeared, sporting four gold rings, a black
embroidered traditional outfit, peach sequined slippers and flowing
henna-dyed hair.
Shah said she started to make her mark two decades ago, by organizing 25
hijra to take on a police station that had refused to deal seriously with an
attack on one of them. The next time it happened, she brought 150, then 400.
"I told them, this should be your job," she said, crossing her legs. "You
have to show strength."
Since the Supreme Court decision, there have been fewer cases of police
abuse, some said. "It's been a huge change," Noor said.
Other complex issues still need to be resolved, including inheritance,
whether hijra merit special job or housing quotas and their gender status on
ID cards. That's important, Shah said, when you're searched at the airport
and your ID says male but you're wearing a dress.
"In our whole lives, we've only faced difficulties,
went to school and whose parents sold her to a guru on discovering in her
early teens that she was a eunuch. "We expect good things to come from the
court decision. We want things to get better."
mark.magnier@
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Time
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