Meet the Khwaja Sira: Pakistan’s Transgender Community

It took Dr. Sarah Gill more than a decade to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor, which generally is a five-year journey for students enrolled in an Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree in Pakistan. Soon after graduating, she got a job offer from Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) in Karachi and became the country’s first transgender doctor. It was not an easy journey.

In January 2022, while the news of Gill making history in Pakistan made waves in the country, an important piece was missing from most discussions. To be complete, any telling of her story has to not only acknowledge her achievement – and the progress it represents – but also the immense struggle that Gill had to undergo to achieve what she has today. She had to constantly battle the discrimination faced by the transgender community in Pakistan, known as the Khwaja Sira in South Asian circles.

“It took so long for the country to have its first transgender woman doctor, and while I am the first, I shall certainly not be the last,” Gill told The Diplomat.

She said that transgender representation is important in every field. If men and women are present in every field, Gill argued, transgender persons should be as well.

“I believe in equality and, more than equality, I believe in equity. We have to provide marginalized communities with opportunities to come in front and work for themselves because a community works best for a community,” said Gill.

She was motivated to become a doctor after her late best friend, Saniya Baloch, a transgender woman who died of blood cancer, told Gill she wished there was a trans woman doctor with whom she could be comfortable during her treatment.

“Saniya’s words stayed with me and I decided to become a doctor and serve my community. However, I faced so many challenges that I felt like giving up,” Gill recounted.

“But when in 2016, a transgender woman, Alisha, bled to death due to sheer discrimination at the hands of hospital staff as they debated whether to place her in the ward for male patients or female patients – that was a wake-up call for me, I decided I would complete medical school at any cost.”

Talking about her struggle and hardships that stretched over more than a decade, she said, “I danced in the night, worked with NGOs in the morning, and studied during the evening. I would collect money and turn in a paper and then work again until I had saved enough to appear for another exam – this is how I completed my third and fourth year of MBBS.”

The Khwaja Sira Community of Pakistan

Gill’s family had asked her to hide her identity while getting an education and leave the country after, but she resisted and openly identified herself as a trans woman. Even after she left home, her mother remained her best friend, staying in touch over the phone. Gill said she has no grievances against her family, since she believes society is largely at fault for the discrimination trans people face. It is social pressure that forces families to disown their transgender children.

Trans people who are shunned by their families are sheltered and supported by the wider Khwaja Sira community.

“I am alive today because of the transgender community. I dedicate my success to the transgender community of Pakistan,” Gill said.

Ostracized and discriminated against, the transgender community in Pakistan has faced societal, legal, and institutional challenges for decades. But recently, the situation has started to change, and the efforts of the Khwaja Sira community are beginning to bear fruit.

Although the Constitution of Pakistan protects all citizens by safeguarding their rights, legislative rights very rarely translate into laws that are implemented with regard to marginalized communities such as the Khwaja Sira. A lack of acceptance of the group within society results in the community becoming socially outcast, deprived of fundamental rights, and subjected to discrimination, harassment, and violence merely on the basis of their identity.

In the 2017 census, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the Khwaja Sira community was counted separately. As per the census, the community accounts for only 0.005 percent of the over 207 million Pakistanis – roughly 10,000 people – but trans rights advocacy groups estimate the transgender population in Pakistan to be between 3 to 4 million. A likely reason for this grossly low official figure is that the census identified transgender people according to their national identity cards, which leaves out transgender people whose cards do not disclose their true status in order to avoid the discrimination that comes with a transgender identity.

Unable to hide their identity from families that try to suppress it, trans people in Pakistan are often disowned by their families or forced to leave their homes and instead live together in their own communities.

“Our families cannot keep us with them because of society’s pressure, but we’re still there for our families in time of need. For us, the trans community is our family instead of our biological family,” said Bubbles Khanum, a Karachi-based visual artist who  highlights the Khwaja Sira community.

Often excluded from getting an education, 42 percent of the Pakistani trans community is illiterate, and many have few options to earn a living. As per a 2016 survey, 51 percent of the overall income of the Khwaja Sira community comes from dancing, 15 percent from sex work, and 12 percent from begging.

“The transgender community is forced to resort to begging, dancing, and sex work because we are shunned by society, but if we are given the opportunities and education, we can do wonders. Over the years the Khwaja Sira community has proved this time and again,” added Khanum.

The Khwaja Sira Community Under British Rule

The Khwaja Sira community has been a part of South Asian life for at least 2,000 years; however, the community was criminalized by the British on the subcontinent under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. This colonial legacy was passed onto independent India and Pakistan.

“There was acceptability of the transgender community in the precolonial era. When the British invaded the Indian subcontinent, they brought with them a narrow view of gender. As cisgender and heterosexual (cishet) white men, they made laws that suited their view,” explaind Hina Baloch, a trans rights activist who is also a law student. “We were orchestrated and ghettoized by the acts that were brought by the British. Transphobia stemmed out of colonial mindset. They criminalized our existence.”

Baloch’s comments are supported by a 2014 essay published in the Asian Studies Review, in which historian Jessica Hinchy argued that British colonists “sought to establish a new social order where the British man was the apex of masculinity.”

In the essay, Hinchy wrote that “when the colonizers discovered a gender variant community of Hijras [the term used in India for the Khwaja Sira community] who violated this elaborate hierarchy they sought to discipline and erase this group from society through the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871.”

Under the Criminal Tribes Act, dressing up in female clothing was a punishable offense for men. According to the law:

Any eunuch so registered who appears, dressed or ornamented like a woman, in a public street or place, or in any other place, with the intention of being seen from a public street or place or dancing in public, or for hire or who dances or plays music, or takes part in any public exhibition, in a public street or place or for hire in a private house, may be arrested without warrant, and shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.

After the partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan, colonial laws persisted for a long time, and the discriminative mentality against the marginalized community still prevails.

Over the past decade-plus, however, changes in colonial era laws have resulted in improvements in the social and legal status of the transgender community in Pakistan.

In 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan passed a historic judgment legally recognizing the Khwaja Sira community in Pakistan, promising them access to national identity cards. Implementation began in 2012 when the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) announced the inclusion of a third gender option on registration forms, making Pakistan one of only 12 countries recognizing transgender identity on national identification cards.

As of 2017, it is estimated that only 18 percent of the total transgender population of Pakistan is officially registered as such. The issuance of national identity cards also used to depend on the applicant having documents from their parents, but a huge number of the Khwaja Sira community do not possess valid documents or have information about their biological parents, as they were abandoned by their families at an early age. This changed in 2017 when NADRA announced that transgender people having no information about their parents can apply for a computerized identity card anyway.

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018

In May 2018, there was a major breakthrough: Pakistan passed one of the world’s most progressive trans rights bills, the Transgender Persons Act 2018, which has now become law.

The act embraced fluidity in regards to gender identity, giving transgender people a right to self-identify while being registered with government departments, including NADRA.

The law explicitly banned discrimination against the Khwaja Sira community in all walks of life and called for the establishment of state-run protection centers for community members where they can seek shelter and access basic health facilities. It also guaranteed transgender citizens the right to inherit, to run for public office, get a driver’s licenses, and have access to public places, among many other specific rights.

“The passing of this act has been a huge achievement of the transgender community of Pakistan, but nevertheless it needs amendments and has loopholes,” Nisha Rao, 29, Pakistan’s first transgender lawyer, told The Diplomat.

“Many things are there in the law but these things are only stated; the implementation of the law has to be ensured,” Rao said. She also had suggestions for expanding its scope: “There should be jobs on a quota system for the transgender community. There should be free education for the transgender community till university level.”

Rao said that she recently was admitted to study for an MPhil in Karachi University’s law department, but she had to pay all the expenses and undergo the exact same procedure as any other citizen.

“Where’s the equity? Our community already undergoes so much discrimination from the society that it is hard for us to compete, since it isn’t a fair playing field. There should be at least one seat reserved in each department in universities for transgender people,” explained Rao, who had to beg on the streets of Karachi for 15 years to fund her studies before becoming the country’s first transgender lawyer in 2020.

The act is, overall, not penal in nature and lacks provisions for punishment, which critics believe will lead to difficulties in the proper implementation of the law. Essentially, there’s nothing to stop people from disregarding the law, as no punishments are outlined for breaking it.

“The act says ‘there should be no discrimination against the transgender community,’ but what if there is rampant discrimination? There is no criminalization for the offenses that are discussed in the act,” Hina Baloch pointed out. “The only thing that has been criminalized in the bill is begging. Begging might be a mafia activity elsewhere in the country, but for the transgender community, it is our source of livelihood since the state has never provided jobs to us.”

Baloch added that the act is not enough. Implementation must be ensured and amendments made to criminalize offenses against the transgender community, such as a rampant housing crisis in every part of the country.

The Many Firsts in 2021

Still, progress is coming, if slowly. Last year witnessed many welcome advances in trans rights and inclusion in Pakistani society. In October 2021, Rani Khan, a transgender woman, inaugurated Pakistan’s first transgender-only madrassa, a religious school she set up herself using her life savings. While there is no official restriction on the Khwaja Sira community attending religious schools, social stigmas and ostracism from society mean there is an unwritten ban on them attending religious schools or other places of worship. Khan didn’t get any support from the government and generated funds for the madrassa by teaching her students to sew and embroider; they then sell the clothes they make.

According to Section 6(a) of The Transgender Persons Act of 2018, the state shall establish protection centers and safe houses for the community. Three years after its passage, the human rights minister of Pakistan, Dr. Shireen Mazari, inaugurated Pakistan’s first Transgender Protection Center in Islamabad in October 2021.

In July 2021, Pakistan opened its first state-run school for the community in the city of Multan, offering classes through the 12th grade.

On August 5, 2021, for the first time, the Punjab government allowed the transgender community to apply for induction into the police and health departments across the province.

An amendment in the Sindh Services Act 1973 was made to reserve a 0.5 percent quota for trans persons’ employment.

The Plights of 2021

Despite these signs of progress, according to Human Rights Watch’s World Report, in 2021 transgender people in Pakistan continued to be at the receiving end of violence, discrimination, and persecution, with little being done by the authorities to hold perpetrators accountable or to provide adequate protection.

On December 11, Hina Baloch, who was also one of the organizers of the People’s Climate March that took place under the banner of the Karachi Bachao Tehreek (Karachi Protection Movement), was abducted, tortured, and sexually assaulted by attackers intending to extract information about the march.

“I didn’t come forward with my identity at that time because I was traumatized then and still suffer from PTSD,” Baloch told The Diplomat. “I was going back home after our [the organizers of the march] final meeting when I was blindfolded, ruthlessly beaten and abducted. I was taken to an unknown location where my clothes were torn off and I was raped and sexually assaulted. I was kept hostage for hours.” recalled Baloch. Her attackers threatened her, telling her to discontinue her activism and asked her to reveal all the information about the the march.

“They accused me of many things and threatened me that I would be killed if I participated in another march or organized one,” shared Baloch. She was also a former organizer of the Women’s Day Aurat March in Karachi, becoming the first person to raise the pride flag in the 2020 edition of the Aurat March.

Baloch didn’t attend the march the day after the assault. On December 13, a statement was released on Twitter after which the chief minister of Sindh, inspector general of the Sindh police, and Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazara reached out to the Karachi Bachao Tehreek and Hina Baloch.

“I decided not to launch a First Information Report (FIR) at that time because I was threatened and traumatized,” said Baloch.

Karachi’s transgender community continues to live in fear of being attacked. According to trans rights activist and founder of the Gender Interactive Alliance, Bindiya Rai, a campaign against the community was launched in May 2021 and violence against transgender people continues.

“This wave of violence is nothing new to us – it is only that people are able to see our plight now because of our visibility and organization, but we pay a huge price through the violence,” said Baloch. “There isn’t a single day in the community when we do not hear a case of violence against transgender persons.”

Violence against the community continues even now. On March 14, 2022, five transwomen were shot and injured in Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, by a group of armed men who broke into their home. On March 18, a trans women, Chaanda, was shot dead in Mardan city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – the second attack against the community in the province in the same week.

According to Dr. Moiz Mehrub Awan, a Khwaja Sira activist and public health professional, the murder rate of transgender people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is 789 per 100,000 people, while the national murder rate in the whole country is 3.9 per 100,000 people.

“Laws are of no use unless they are strictly implemented and Pakistan has a long way to go before it criminalizes offenses against its transgender citizens,” Baloch said.

“But the community will keep resisting and fighting for their rights like they have been doing for decades.”