storiesfrompakistan:

Hijras (Photography by Fayyaz Ahmed)

In a region which treats sex and sexual activity as a private matter (and a strict one at that), the life of any deviant from the accepted path is less than hospitable.

In Pakistan and India, in languages as diverse as Urdu, Hindi, Telugu, and Bengali, transgendered men are known as hijras. Although often referred to as “eunuchs”, many of Pakistan’s hijras have not undergone gender reassignment surgery. The medical and psychological services available in other Asian countries, such as Thailand, are either absent or operate in the shadows here.

Most hijras describe themselves as wedding dancers since female performers are forbidden under Pakistani law but their main sources of income hail from begging and prostitution.

In general, hijras are abused, intimidated, and harassed by everyone, from the police to the neighborhood thugs. In recent years though, their lives have started to change slowly with the Pakistani judiciary ushering in groundbreaking laws that offer better rights and stronger government support to the hijra community. Details here.

(via puerhshawarma)