When colonisation came, the first thing the British saw was that these people were not acceptable to the society. Under the Criminal Act of 1871, there was no requirement to register transgender people and reform them because they were thought of them as ‘sinners’ and an ‘unnatural being’. We as countrymen adopted their mindset and now, despite having matured as a society, we are still deeply rooted with this morbid mindset.
In the wake of the recent event where a transgender activist, Alisha, was ruthlessly killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, everyone lost their minds and came forward to support her. The hardest part, perhaps, of the entire incident was when the Lady Reading Hospital staff and doctors couldn’t decide as to where Alisha would be shifted – male or female ward.
We humans are biased creatures. We make fun of people in their lifetime and, when they are gone, we brag about their deaths on social media. The same applies to the transgender community. If we really sympathise with their feelings then why are they gang raped, teased, abused, harassed and shot?
“The most widely reported violence (against transgendered people in Pakistan) is emotional violence, ranging from sexually explicit verbal abuse in the streets to intense humiliation and psychological torture in the home,” according to a 2014 report by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission on the treatment towards transgender community.
The Constitution of 1973 gives full freedom to the third gender community; Article 9 security of a person, Article 25 equality of citizens, Article 26 non-discrimination in respect of access to public places and Article 27 safeguard against discrimination in services full freedom and liberty.
Furthermore, there are anti-discrimination laws in employment specifically for transgender or transexual persons, anti-discrimination laws in the provision of goods and services for transgender or transexual individuals and right to change legal gender since 2010.
Sociologists Stephen O. Murray and Badruddin Khan have written that the penal laws themselves are rarely enforced directly, but are used by the police and other private citizens as a form of blackmail. Unfortunately, this all remains in black and white only. There are no implementations and that we all can see and understand well.
Even just for once why don’t we all accept and understand that they are born that way, it’s not something they chose. It’s the way Almighty made them and they should be safeguarded and respected equally. Well, I am ending this blog with a heavy heart as I cry tears of blood for the ‘THIRD GENDER – THE THIRD WORLD’ but leaving you all with a question to be answered according to the Holy Quran: Click for Reference
“To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth; He creates what He wills. He gives to whom He wills female [children], and He gives to whom He wills males.” – Chapter 42, Verse 49
“Or He makes them [both] males and females, and He renders whom He wills barren. Indeed, He is Knowing and Competent.” – Chapter 42, Verse 50