Daily Times

“We just wanted to help people understand that it’s okay to be a transgender, and they’re just like everyone else”-Jazz Jennings

In February 2019, my article titled, “Transgender dilemma,” was published, which was although appreciated by the ones who feel for their plight, but left me thinking that by merely writing on the issue, had I absolved myself from all humanistic duties? Do I not owe it to these complex human beings to find ways and means so that they too can enjoy a minimal level of respect from society? To put my idea into action, I sent one of my staff members to the transgender locality to find someone young, who was willing to learn some skill to enable her (preferred form of address) to lead a decent life. I was ready to employ in one of our offices. However, he returned dejected by the way the guru treated him. The guru found the whole idea quite abominable, casting doubts on our good intentions. For her, just like others, perhaps it was difficult to perceive that a transgender could be seen as a respectable person and not merely a sexual object.

In the West, there is a tremendous awareness about this critical problem and to some extent, transgender people are not seen as unusual or unfit to lead normal lives.

In Pakistan, the situation is quite different. Being highly marginalised, their assimilation in our society has yet to see the light of day. Questions keep popping up in mind that if the procreative ability is missing from the lives of transgender or Khwaja Sira as they are popularly known here, how come this community boasts of almost 400,000 members (and not 10,000 plus as per government statistics)? After all, women beget them. Then how do they end up in specific localities? Who are their parents who mercilessly discard their offsprings
Offsprings is wrong. Both singular and plural is offspring. How do the young ones end up in tutelage of a guru?

Agitated by these questions and browsing the web for answers, I came across the website of Gender Interactive Alliance Pakistan, a non-governmental organisation formed in 2002 that is actively working for the welfare of transgender persons in Pakistan. This provided me with a golden opportunity to learn some hard facts directly from its president, the very vibrant Bindiya Rana. Fully motivated to revolutionise the Pakistani transgender persons’ destiny, she is actively engaged in politics and various projects about the general welfare of her people. She rightfully claims that they are part of the human community then yet there is so much discrimination and resentment that they are forced to live in exclusive colonies which she likens to a zoo as if they are altogether a separate specie like other exotic animals. Indeed, a very valid point!

On inquiring about how the community multiplies, I was told that when a transgender individual is born in a family, the mothers are usually the ones to own her but siblings and other relatives feel uncomfortable and insist on sending such a person away. In many cases, the traumatised children flee homes and take shelter with sympathetic gurus, who eagerly welcome them with open arms, provide them with a home and parental love. Depending on the guru’s credentials, these children can either become beggars or as I was informed, there are some double masters and skilful persons ably running their businesses. Bindiya informed me that in Baluchistan and some rural areas, families cherish their transgender offspring whom they engage in farming and related activities. This means that not all such humans are abandoned or disowned by their blood relations, which is quite comforting.

Being highly marginalised, the assimilation of transgenders in our society has yet to see the light of day
Despite my clear instructions this byline contains transgenders

According to Bindiya, there is a dire need to allow her community to get access to good educational institutions for creating awareness among the younger generation and allow them to attain high standard education to cast off that stigma because of which they are unable to adjust in the normal society. Employers must be more understanding and not demand a change of appearance as a precondition for giving jobs. If a she-male feels happy in a woman’s attire, she should not be forced to cut her hair and wear men’s clothes. In other words, a form must not be made an excuse for not accommodating a transgender job-seeker. People must learn to appreciate them for who they are and desist from making fun of them or talk to them in a nasty manner.

Bindiya’s quest for basic entitlements has brought her to the political forefront. She has to her credit, the passage of The Pakistan Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2018 (the Act) in May 2018 following nine years of continuous struggle to secure certain rights from the government. Before the Act, a transgender person was dealt with in a grotesquely inhuman manner, being denied the right to education, to inheritance, to vote, to intermingle freely with other members of the society, to hold public office etc. This Act is quite a major break-through for the community, ignored by successive governments because of which it has suffered since long and has unfortunately remained a target for ridicule and abuse by people without a conscience. Perhaps the best thing this Act has done is to allow a transgender person to determine his/her sex according to his/her self-perception rather than the gender assigned at birth-section 2(n).

Now the next move is to secure a seat in the Parliament to address transgender issues in a more emphatic way. The governments have deliberately declared a low population figure of the transgender community to prevent them from becoming a pressure group but with this new alignment, challenges have taken a positive turn in that a better level of consciousness among the transgender community has compelled the government to face them with a seriousness never observed before. The Act has been a major milestone for the Pakistani transgender people who for the first time in decades have achieved a much-deserved recognition.

The most intriguing thing that I have learnt from my interaction with this community is that it considers its members as plain human beings without any discrimination on account of caste, creed, faith, religion and sect, which are of least concern to it. Its main objective is to lend support to its people and stand united against any form of maltreatment or violation of their rights.

A transgender person is not born out of choice nor is s/he an outcome of the parents’ fault. A genetic mutation cannot be attributed to human error therefore we honestly need to correct our perceptions and attitude towards these harmless human beings. Just because they do not fit in our set standards does not mean that they are to be abandoned or left unprotected. They should be cherished, cared for and loved with the same passion as our children and above all, their honour should be guarded as befitting a human being. They may be different but they are definitely not the scum of this earth-for that we have plentiful ‘real’ men and women.

The writer is a lawyer, author and an Adjunct Faculty at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)