Third Gender pin hopes on new rights in Pakistan

Thursday, November 10th, 2011 6:50:54 by Momina Khan

Third Gender pin hopes on new rights in Pakistan

The term ‘Third Gender’ describes an individual who is categorized either by will or by social consensus as neither a man nor a woman. Mostly in Asia the term used to describe them is ‘Hijra’s’ of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
They are also known as Fa’afafine of Polynesia and Sworn virgins of the Balkans.

In the back streets, of Pakistan’s largest city, in a squalid neighbourhood is a tiny, shabby apartment. It is where we find "Shehzadi" getting ready for work. Wearing a bright yellow dress and scrabbling around her make-up box,
she is doing her best to cover up her decidedly masculine features. Shehzadi is transgendered: physically male, but psychologically female.

When asked how she feels, she said, "When I was about six or seven, I realised I wasn’t either a boy or a girl, I was miserable because I didn’t understand why I was different. It was only when I met another ‘she-male’ that I felt
peace in my heart and my mind."

Like so many other of the estimated 50,000 transgenders in Pakistan, Shehzadi left home as a teenager, to live with others from the same community.

Shehzadi said, "I’m happy being with other transgenders, but there are many problems; people don’t understand, and they abuse us. It’s hard to get a place to live in, or even to move about normally. I get teased when I stand and
wait for a bus."

These are a few of the problems that are faced by third genders; however, today in Pakistan they have been given rights.

On a hot Wednesday in 2009, the Supreme Court in Pakistan ordered that the government officially recognize a separate gender for Pakistan’s hijra community, which includes transgendered people, transvestites, and eunuchs. The court
told the federal government to begin allowing people to identify as hijras when registering for a national identity card. 

Such cards are necessary for everything from voting to more informal situations; patrons must present the card at cybercafes before surfing the Internet, for example. Not having an identity card, or having one with incorrect information, leaves a person vulnerable
and easily excluded from society.

Almas Bobby, a hijra association’s president, said to Reuters. "It’s a major step towards giving us respect and identity in society. We are slowly getting respect in the society. Now people recognise that we are also human beings."

In Pakistan the hijras live in groups (generally 4-12 members) headed by a Guru, normally the oldest. The group earns livelihood by performing/dancing/singing in various family functions e.g. birthdays, marriages or child births.

Commonly in Pakistan, transgenders have either been entertainers, or sex workers, or beggars. The only contact most Pakistanis have with members of the community is at traffic lights across the country, where they tap on car windows,
begging for money.

A representative of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) informed the court that the authority had issued computerised national identity cards to eunuchs by identifying them as males in the gender section which
should not be the case; instead, they should be identified as the ‘Third Gender’. He added that two jobs had been allocated for them at Nadra but they were still lying vacant as no eligible eunuch had so far approached the authority to apply for the post.

Although recognizing the community as having its own gender will not solve all of the transgenders’ problems, Pakistan’s Supreme Court has made further recommendations. However, Pakistan’s Supreme Court now says that transgenders
should also be allocated a certain number of government jobs. Nonetheless, just a handful of transgenders have government jobs at the moment.

Meanwhile, Saeed Qureshi, a representative of the Sindh health department, told the court that the province had utilised the services of the eunuchs very effectively during the recent polio drive.

Almas Bobby conceded that some eunuchs had been given temporary jobs in Wasa of Sindh but highlighted the need for giving them permanent jobs. However, for the vast majority, finding work is still tough.

Moreover, Additional Advocate General of Punjab Jawwad Hassan reported to the Supreme Court on this Wednesday that inheritance claims of four “she-males” had been determined in the districts of Rawalpindi, Sialkot and Okara.

The court was also told that the Punjab government had nominated Almas Bobby, president She-male Foundation of Pakistan, as the focal person of eunuch to interact with the provincial administration and other quarters concerned.

During the exercise in different districts of Punjab, eunuchs said they were not facing any difficulty regarding property rights but complained about difficulties they were facing due to unemployment, low income, lack of necessities
of life, including residential facilities, lack of protection and inhuman behaviour of police towards them.

The apex court ordered the Punjab government to submit a statement showing transfer of the title deeds in favour of these eunuchs who inherited properties on November the 14th 2011.

The four provincial chief secretaries and commissioner of Islamabad are required to submit details of initiatives taken for the welfare of the eunuchs on the next date of hearing.

At this, the chief justice observed that permanent jobs could be provided to the eunuchs provided they acquired education. The chief justice also observed that the constitution ensured protection to the rights and properties of
every individual.

The issue cropped up when police raided the residence of some transvestites in Taxila and arrested them for living ‘a life of sin’. That made Islamic jurist Dr Mohammad Aslam Khaki research the children born with confused gender
and the life circumstances made them to live in. Their pitiful life led Dr Khaki petition the Supreme Court to come to the rescue of the eunuchs.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez acting on a private petition last December had directed all the district administrations in the country
to help the eunuchs secure their shares in the family inheritance.

It could just be that in Pakistan the lot of this isolated and often ridiculed community might just be getting a little bit better.

Tags: Additional Advocate General, Almas Bobby, Chaudry Iftikhar Muhammad, Dr Mohammad Aslam Khaki, Eunuchs, Fa afafine, Hijra, Jawwad Hassan, NADRA, National Database and Registration Authority, Okara, Rawalpindi, Saeed Qureshi, Sialkot, Sindh, Supreme Court Pakistan, Sworn virgins, Taxila, Third Gender

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