Daily Times

Shunned by their own families and forced into a life of social isolation; routinely ridiculed in public and deprived of access to the bare fundamentals, Pakistan’s trans community has long lived in the shadows of its heteropatriarchal empire. But, things are slowly changing. In a historic win for trans rights, transgender people have now formally been included within the mandate of the Benazir Income Support Program.

Four years ago, Pakistan became one of the first few countries to enact its first pro-trans Act; prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in schools, workplaces, and public settings. But legal protections on paper do not always translate into reality. Indeed, shortly after the bill was passed, prominent conservatives from all across the country denounced it as an “anti-Muslim conspiracy.” In fact, it was revealed that Pakistan has recently averaged approximately 10 homicides of trans people annually-more than before the law was passed. Just last year, four transgender people were killed in a brutal barrage of attacks in the country’s northwestern area. The law also called for the establishment of protection centers, where transgender people can access mental health and legal services as well as temporary housing. Unsurprisingly, only one such center exists so far. No funding has been allocated to address the problems the Act sought to remedy and provincial governments do not appear to have their own version of the law.

The 2017 Housing and Population Census counted 10,500 transgender people in Pakistan-an implausible figure for a country with a population of over 200 million. Trans rights groups, however, claim that the real number more closely resembles half a million people. Census agents continue to register trans people as men: another manifestation of trans bodies being erased from the state’s official narrative. Last year, Pakistan’s first Oscar-winning film, Joyland, was banned after backlash from right-wing Islamic elements in the country who took issue with its bold and brazen depiction of trans people. The BISP’s inclusion of transgender people signals a step in the right direction but it will take a lot more before the trans community is able to assimilate into mainstream society. *