Third Gender and Their Status in Pakistan
Despite of its obsessive caveats, globalization still secures some gratitude from developing countries like Pakistan. Gratitude for stimulating warfare against traditional stigmatization attached with physical and intellectual disability. Numerous welfare programs have been launched to help handicaps to earn their due rights in society. Yet a class is not only denied of its due veneration but also of its disability. By that I refer to hermaphrodites — hijras, they are being called in Pakistan.
Before collating third gender issues in Pakistan, let us first response to this query: ” Should hijras be regarded as handicaps and disable like deaf, dump, blind, retarded and crippled?”
“They should, if they fulfill definitional requirement.” This can be the abrupt reply from those who believe in rules more than humanity. But to our contentment lets augment a brief piece of definition.
Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI) defines disability as follows: “Disability is a functional limitation within the individual caused by physical, intellectual, emotional, or sensory impairments”. The World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons defines handicap as follows: “Handicap is … a function of the relationship between disabled persons and their environment. It occurs when they encounter cultural, physical or social barriers, which prevent their access to the various systems of society that are available to other citizens. Thus, handicap is the loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the life of the community on an equal level with others”.
Individuals who are born with sexual deformity are known as hijras — doing completely with the definition of disability considering sexual deformity a physical irregularity. Such persons deviate from normative beliefs about gender/sex thus are repelled to live in marginalized communities — falling under the category of handicap too as they are prevented to live normal life in society.
You still don’t agree? You are not obliged to. I know, beliefs fabricated over centuries cannot be ragged out by providing a shred of definition. Take your time and leave this question unanswered. Don’t consider them disable. Don’t render them distinguished rights in turn. But can you help yourself in disqualifying them for human rights? Universal declaration on human rights clearly holds that all human beings irrespective of gender (among others such as, race, caste, creed etc) are entitled to human rights. Yet they have been denied for that particular reason since centuries. And what next centuries will fetch for them is still incredulous.
Hijras of Pakistan have their history rooted back in Mughal reign as Khawjasaras. Khawjasaras were eunuchs or hermaphrodites that were employed by Mughal rulers as care takers of their harems. They were potent in courts, state affairs and as confidantes of rulers. Their status deteriorated with the devastation of princely rulers and finally fettered to begging. By then the hijras are considered social outcasts, existing in a strange, no man’s land.
Rights of hijras in Pakistan are confined to vote/contest in elections. Otherwise they are victims of extreme social ostracism. They are denied in families. They are neither acceptable at work places nor they are allotted any quota in employment. They are also deprived of opportunities to take education because of people’s attitude towards them. More so they are also denied health and psychological/ psychotherapeutic assistance.
Most Pakistani cities have sizable hijras communities, divided into clan groups living mostly in ghettos and officiated over by a leader or guru. These communities are generally known as Chellas. Hijras, in past, earned their living by dancing at carnivals, weddings and births. However, with the outgrowth of novel means of celebrations, sex work and begging remain the only available occupational choices for the hijras community.
The labor and payment arrangements of hijras are different in different cities. As ILO reported that in the Punjab, all the money earned is divided into three shares. The guru gets 50 percent; 25 percent goes for household expenses and the remaining 25 percent are equally divided among all group members. However, in Sindh chellas have to turn over their full day’s earnings to their guru who keeps 75 percent and returns 25 percent to the chella. Household expenses are born collectively. Non-resident chellas are supposed to come to their guru’s home to pay a fixed amount and receive commodities on a monthly basis.
Beside this, educated english speaking class of eunuch is enlarging in Pakistan. They do not face this treatment because of their social and economic status in the society. They become fashion designers, interior decorators, hair stylists’ etc.
Are they only unjust social laws that like spider’s webs only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful easily break through them? Or the picture depicted above has an other face too? It is true that human psychology is a victim to the hegemony of heterosexual society contrived by culture and society. But it is also sarcastic to blame whole society wrong in its demeanor against hijras. They have their part in fabricating this attitude toward themselves.
As most of people do not considered them hijras by birth. They believe that they are either men behaving like women (cross-dressers) or they are homosexual. No doubt, it is true. Zafar (2004)1 corroborated that the number of those born with sexual deformity in Hijra community is as low as 1%. Both homosexuals and cross-dressers are cursed down upon in Islam. As it is difficult to isolate a genuine hijra from converted one, people use to curse and look down upon whole hijra community. Moreover sex work and certain behavioral patterns such as sundering jokes, using disgusting language and throwing vulgar gesticulations, persuade aggravation resulting in people harboring negative attitude towards them.
Reasons for becoming hijra or joining hijra community are varied. It is heeded that hijras earn livelihood relatively easily. Desperate and unemployed youth is attracted to hijra community to earn this easy money. Secondly, ignorance toward psychological healing of problems in most of the low class families led their children to take shelter in the so-called safe haven of hijra community. Selling of children to hijra community due to poverty is yet another important reason for becoming hijra.
Reasons are obvious; solutions are obvious too. First of all, parents should be very careful about the children showing deviant behavior. If a boy behaves in girlish manner, he should not be encouraged. Rather, should be taken to psychiatrist immediately for necessary treatment. Secondly, parents should have an active eye on the activities of their children reaching the age of adolescence. They should check the company their children keep. Government should more actively approach to homosexuals and develop public awareness program to handle the issue. At the end, there should be complete record of born hijras on district level. So that these hijras can either be provided financial help publicly to restrain them from falling in socially unacceptable activities or assigned them quota in employment.
Other posts by Saira Tufail
- Has A New "Earth" Been Discovered? - May 10th, 2007
- Recommendations Required on National Education Policy - May 6th, 2007
- Are You Fast Food Junkie? - February 26th, 2007
- Choose Your Profession According to Your Blood Group - February 23rd, 2007
- National Internship Program - February 9th, 2007
- How to Bring Change? - February 6th, 2007
- Reconsideration - February 4th, 2007
- Asia News - February 3rd, 2007
- Tobacco Exacerbates Poverty and Hunger - February 2nd, 2007
- Causes of Poverty - January 28th, 2007
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May 7th, 2009 03:51 GMT
I wondered at first why gentlemen such as yourselves would have any interest in such persons as hijras, then realized that, like me, you probably find them at the same time fascinating and repulsive, and therefor a riddle. Perhaps, like me, you enjoy solving riddles, and finding answers to strange, difficult problems, especially ones that seem to be growing. Here is my two cents’ worth:
Hijras of every persuasion seem to be everywhere on earth these days, and out of the closet in great numbers; their attention-seeking behavior, so unconventional, is difficult to ignore. I don’t assume, strange as they are, that they are all entirely stupid, but feel rather that they are trying to tell us something, and are waving a red flag of warning to us all. They have straddled nature’s fence and refuse to come down, in the process sacrificing their normal lives and futures and children, deliberately subjecting themselves to chastisement and condemnation in a way that no apparently sane person would do, so what do they really want?
Offhand, they condemn us all, men and women, and refuse to join either team. We men, who have managed to plan war so well that we now offer a strong probability of no winner at all to another real one, have all but engineered ourselves out of business, but for proxy wars to allow our young, testosterone-loaded males a vent for their personal hostilities; perhaps we should turn our manly hands to building for a while, and leave off destroying. And women, who have also done their job of producing children so well that we are swimming in an ocean of people wider and deeper than it has ever been in known history, unable to escape a billion needy hands and mouths everywhere we turn, need to slow down a bit, too; maybe more caring for people who are already alive and fewer new ones are needed for a while.
Any mass behavior that leaves deserts behind needs to be reconsidered. I think the hijra are very frightened, and we probably should wonder why.
I believe that’s what the hijra are collectively trying to tell us, whether they could say it in so many words or not. They probably feel forced to sieze our attention by bad example, because it is unlikely that we would listen to them in person.
I hope you will forgive me if I have belabored the obvious, and thank you so much for the opportunity to communicate on this matter, which I feel is of considerable importance.
May 6th, 2009 11:35 GMT
It can only be sad for a hijra to reduce himself to the level of farm animal, which care not where their feces fall or who is offended by it; perhaps to do so is a self-acknowledgement of their social status. Even cats are more conscientious, and are easier to teach how to march in formation.
Maybe the hijra seek, without really knowing, the perfection of the human, to be no longer burdened by the limitations of being merely a male or merely a female, each only half of a whole person, with such differing wishes and abilities that cause us all such great difficulties, from cradle to grave.
Why has God made us so different, male and female, like the little boy who puts two scorpions in a bottle to watch them fight? By the time we are three years old, we all know that we are like half of humankind, and unlike the other half, and the “us-versus-them” syndrome is born in our minds, which often leads to war, ever a quick fix to compensate for poor planning.
April 14th, 2009 23:05 GMT
Mohammad bhai…like i said they are mentally sick people. There are genetic reasons such as high estrogen levels and other causes.
But the point is, in our country they are obnoxious and unhygienic people. My more liberal minded friends chastize me for not accepting them. But there are reasons for everything i say.
And the truth is, i dont want Pakistan to be like india –where AIDS and other plagues are rampant. We have enough problems.
May those hijras be guided…..rather than engaging in drugs and prostitution and other illicit paths of life.
However –in the end — as long as they dont bother me or my family, they can go jump off a bridge for all i care. Or they should just move to india.
April 14th, 2009 15:24 GMT
@ Mr. Lakhani: Thanks for the detailed reply.
@ Ayub: Why do they mutilate their organs. Can’t they just simply wear lipstick and behave the way they do without mutilating themselves. I’m just curious.
March 29th, 2009 17:49 GMT
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen: I was initially drawn to this thread in an on-going exploration to discover if there really were humans of a true third gender, persons who are equipped with both sets of genitalia and therefor able to both sire and bear offspring, and were born thus, to my thinking. So far I have discovered no real ones, but it appears that nearly every society of humankind has a percentage of what you call “hijra,” in their various forms, always has had and probably always will have.
March 26th, 2009 12:41 GMT
none of those hijras are born without sexual organs…..They are born with them, but they mutilate themselves or have operations.
then they smear themselves with lipstick. They are a real eye-sore, and they are such mentally unstable people.
I think we should have NGOs address their problems. I am not going to deny that there are genetic links behind the causes —but i still think the hijras need to get their acts together. They are such unhygienic people —especially since (apart from dancing at some weddings) they sell their exit-holes for cash.
we should learn from the lessons of hindustan next door –where AIDS and other horrible plagues are spreading because of prostitution and drugs industry.
March 25th, 2009 19:54 GMT
@ Mohammed Yusha: Hijras are usually men who do not have the male sexual organ. Sometimes they are born that way, but mostly their genitals have been removed after they were kidnapped when they were children (this happens in the subcontinent). Sometimes hijras (the English equivalent word is “eunuchs”) have the bodies of men but with very small sexual organs, so their parents think they are females. In Pakistan, hijras usually offer their bodies for money. I have seen them being picked up at night in Nursery (Karachi) for sexual purposes. I remember writing a post on this subject (”proliferation of eunuchs (hijras)” on this blog.
March 25th, 2009 16:20 GMT
Is a hijra someone who is gay or without the reproductive organ?
March 24th, 2009 14:57 GMT
oh God……
Lets liberalize and modernize ourselves –in OTHER WAYS!!!
those hijras are the most un-hygienic and obcene behavior people i have ever seen.
Its not nice for children to see these people coming out of rick-shaws and having to wonder what these people are.
i think some mandatory 6 month military training and community service would help them (and all other Pakistanis)
March 24th, 2009 14:17 GMT
Assalam Alikum !!!
Those who want help on this Topic can consult Dr. Ghazala Rehman, Psychology Depatment, Quaid-iAzam University, Islamabad.