This week, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that hijras, (transgender individuals) should be allowed to choose an alternative sex when they apply for their national identity cards. The News reported,
The court directed NADRA (National Database and Registration Authority) to expedite efforts for issuance of National Identity Cards (NICs) to eunuchs, besides registering them as she-males. The court observed that eunuchs are Pakistani citizens, but they are deprived of various rights, including the right of having NICs.
The BBC quoted Brigadier Ehsan ul-Haq of NADRA who told reporters after the ruling, “Transgenders wanted recognition for their community. Why not reflect them as having a separate identity?”
According to the Guardian’s Declan Walsh last year [also see this great audio slideshow by Walsh], Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has been a proponent of hijra rights, warning police “to cease harassment and intimidation.” Prior to this week’s decision, Pakistan’s court also ruled two years ago that this community had the right to refer to themselves as the “third gender.” The shift has caused one leader of the hijra community to comment, “Times are changing. Our community feels good for the first time in 60 years.”
The traditional occupation of the transgender community consists of “begging for alms when bestowing blessings on male babies and at weddings,” noted Nabiha Meher Sheikh in this piece [recommended reading for those who’d like to read more background]. “Most of their songs are about pregnancy and their dances are mostly parodies of pregnant women.” Although many claim to be “professional wedding dancers,” Walsh reported that campaigners say their main sources of income come from begging and prostitution. And despite a degree of cultural acceptance (hijras have been part of this society for centuries, and were courtesans during the Mughal Empire), the transgender community is often persecuted and harassed.
But about two years ago, the government began hiring hijras as tax collectors, going door to door to shame people into paying their taxes. It’s a practice that the Indian government also began in 2006, and transgender individuals would receive 4% of any taxes collected (via the BBC). Sajid Hussein Bhatti, a tax superintendent who gives Riffi, a hijra tax collector, orders every morning, told CNN for a recent report, “Their appearance causes great embarrassment amongst the people.” CNN further noted,
We followed them as they visit a series of electrical appliance shops. The first debtor insists there’s been a mistake and the bill’s been paid. The second is less amenable, so the team threaten to come back 24 hours later, half a dozen strong — and dance in the shop. That just may be enough to get a tax bill settled.
I first read about this tactic last year, in Adam Ellick’s piece for the NY Times, “Tax-Free Living in Pakistan.” He reported, “For many of the TGs [Transgendered people] hired by the Clifton board, tax collecting is their first salaried job, and two of them still work as sex workers…[they] have collected $100,000 in about nine months, 10 times the cost of the program.”
Obviously, Pakistan has an enormous tax issue, with only 1.9 million out of 170 million filing tax returns last year. Some would argue that hiring hijras as tax collectors is novel and a positive step for this community, because it’s engaging them in society and providing them employment. But I have a hard time agreeing with such a notion. If we truly wanted to bring TGs into mainstream society as respected citizens, why give them roles that ultimately exacerbate the stereotypes and stigmas attached to their community? In that sense, should this recent development regarding national identity cards be taken with a grain of salt, seen as a political concession for this tax collection tactic?
Shehzadi, a hijra interviewed by the BBC, told the news agency, “Getting jobs and ID cards is great, but when I die, I know the community will have a party, spend all my money, and then it will be as if Shehzadi never walked on this earth.”
“If we truly wanted to bring TGs into mainstream society as respected citizens, why give them roles that ultimately exacerbate the stereotypes and stigmas attached to their community?”
Good point, I hadn’t considered that before.
I wonder if hijra’s are persecuted more or less than religious minorities in Pakistan?
Well the community is pretty small – I would venture to guess that it’s less given the cultural acceptance of hijras, but I have no stats to back up that claim. In writing this post, I did a lot of background research on the community’s history in the region – so fascinating. Really recommend Nabiha’s piece and Declan Walsh’s audio slideshow if you’d like to learn more.
Also, it’s interesting to see a parallel between Pakistan and India – in India they started to use TGs as tax collectors in 2006 and in 2009 (I believe) were afforded the right to refer to themselves as the third gender, despite petitioning for rights for years – that is the reason I wonder whether in both cases, these rights are superficial concessions of rights rather than genuine efforts to bring hijras into society as mainstream citizens.
Well said. Even though I do believe that they deserve to get their third sex category, we are indeed supporting stereotypes. That said, how else can we identify them? Most of them assert that they are not men, nor women.
Totally agree – and it seems they for the most part want that separate category because they don’t consider themselves either, I just am being cautious whether to hail this dev and the tax collection employment as true signs of positive change for this community.
But again, I don’t want to speak for them – maybe they are happy with it, but just making some observations.
Very valid ones! This is very convenient & just because a separate category has been created, doesn’t mean that discrimination will end. They will undoubtedly be discriminated against in the work place for example. A guru I spoke to a while back talked about how difficult it was to get work as a hijra & how it was hard to sustain so much verbal abuse. I really feel for them!
In Iran, the gov’t pays for sex-change operations for trans-sexuals. Might that not be the better route, as opposed to maintaining the “hijras”?
I just meant making concrete decisions to bring them into mainstream society while still maintaining their dignity as human beings. Providing employment and rights of inheritance, identification, etc. are steps, but employment contingent on reducing their dignity is not.
But I do think it’s interesting that Iran does that – considering they don’t believe there are even gay people in their country!
Yes, they do that Kalsoom. It’s worth looking into. It’s the only country in the world that even changes the person’s sex on their birth certificate. And that’s why they say there are no gay people. They are coerced into become physically female.
Not at all a better route. They are a historically distinct gender in the subcontinent. Yes, some may want to become real females, but that’s not the case with all & definitely shouldn’t be enforced the way Iran does. The people operated upon in Iran have some horrendous stories to tell. I can’t seem to remember the name of the best documentary on this…
Interesting. I was thinking that the traditional “hijra” mode of third sex was a reaction to traditionally “poor” medical science (i.e., a poor second choice), and that now most would prefer the more modern surgery. But you’re suggesting that’s not true–OK, point taken, we shouldn’t force people to get the more “modern” surgery.
It’s an open question as to how many will continue to be a distinct third sex (i.e. hijras) and not live their lives as women if they were given enough family support, environment of social tolerance, and economic freedom. I suspect that the number will be vastly reduced.
[…] Tax Collection, NICs & the Transgender Community […]
I think employment anti-discrimination laws against flamboyant Hijras will not really be effective in Pakistan and India. Even if such a law was passed, no business will hire flamboyant hijras especially when the judiciary is completely ineffective. However, they should enact them anyway because that’s the right thing to do and the symbolism by itself will help in the integration. Sadly it will be very hard to pass these laws because even in the United States, federal discrimination laws don’t protect hijras and other trans-gender people nor do state laws in most US states.
I like the identification law in Pakistan because it should hopefully create more awareness, which should lead to more acceptance and integration into the mainstream society.
Some Western NGOs have tried to work on the rights of Hijras in India and have not been very successful as they did not really understand the hijra community. The South Asian hijras are not exactly trans-gender as we understand the term in the West. Some have argued that most desi hijras don’t really want to become women per se, unlike in the West. On the other hand, I have talked to Indian Civil Rights lawyers who have worked with the Hijra community and they were of the opinion that a lot of the hijras, if given family support and economic freedom, would simply live their lives as regular women (with or without sex change) similar to what we see in the West. According to this school of thought, they are forced to live as flamboyant hijras out of necessity. NGOs and government institutions could help these people in leaving the hijra community and live trans-gendered lives as women.
Of course, some will continue to dress and behave as flamboyant hijras. We have flamboyant drag queens in the West who choose to live as drag queens even though they can simply become women. I am sure a similar dynamic will exist in South Asia even if the hijras had family support and economic freedom. Acceptance of such flamboyant hijras will be much harder without a societal shift in values, changes in level of tolerance etc.
A very good piece Kalsoom.
very well written and researched. the collection of taxes seems like such a novel way of dealing with the problem .. by the way it does seem to be quite a liberal attitude in Pakistan to be passing a law allowing a separate category for the hijras do you know if other countries have that? if not i think it does show Pakistan in a positive light with regards to it being quite progressive by accepting this .. far from the extremist images we are so used to being labelled with..