Living in Denial

A few years ago, popular actor Mosharraf Karim played the role of a transgender, also known as ‘Hijra’, in a Television drama called ‘Chaiya Chaiya’. It great received response from the audience. The drama depicts how a transgender can infuriate a person and can force anyone to achieve what they want. It is a satirical drama but portrays the popular image of a ‘Hijra’ as an extortionist, fear proliferating, troublesome being. 

Just like the TV drama, the society portrays them as intruders. We treat them as the invaders who attempt to disturb the poetics of space of masculine and feminine. Since the conservatives believe the two major actors of society are male and female, thus the third gender becomes alienated. In other words, they are kind of a ‘mistake of nature’. So they are not socially accepted, thus have no right to stay with males and females in the same society. 

They are seizing the street, city, nation and world, which is made only for these two exclusive genders and threatening their social security, real or imagined. And for that reason, people living in this society narrated the Transgender as a threat to their social and civilised being, a vicious threat to human nobility. Transgender or Hijras thereafter cannot work as a normal human beings, cannot walk on the street, and socially have no right to ask for a decent job. 

Photo: Amran Hossain

However the situation is; history tells us a different narrative. Some of them were royal guards, heroic solder, politician and courtiers in Mughal Darbar. Researchers believe that with the decline of Mughal Empire, the third gender lost its social position. Slowly from a respected social hierarchy, transgender degenerated to a neglected and scary social creature. 

The contemporary social contract between citizens and the state provides them the right for decent living, job, and security. But the life transgender people are living, is still way beyond minimum dignity. Bangladesh in November, 2013 officially recognised the Hijras or transgender as a separate gender. This is a historic decision that allows Hijra's to add their gender information in the passport and can be enlisted as voters. And of course, it will help them to gain rights as a citizen of the country.   

Article 27 of our constitution reads that all citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law. Article 28(1) further provides that the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex. Now the fight is against social stigmatisation of the transgendered, public reception of the third gender and understanding their behavioral patterns. And it needs to involve social institution, willingness of individual and societies to change their collective negative judgment.