Transgender candidates also in the run

KARACHI — Even among the colourful cast of mullahs, labourers and idealists standing in Pakistan’s elections this Saturday, Bindia Rana stands out.

By (Reuters)

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Published: Sat 11 May 2013, 1:26 AM

Last updated: Sat 4 Apr 2015, 9:16 AM

She and a handful of others are the first of Pakistan’s transgender “hijra” community — which includes transsexuals, transvestites and others — to register as candidates.

Dressed in a long, checked outfit with black lace sleeves, her red hair piled on top of her head, she resembles the hoopoe, the flamboyant and industrious bird crowned with a shock of red feathers that she chose as a campaign symbol.

Often ridiculed or attacked, hijras are treated as misfits in Pakistani society.

“Transgender people get our first threats from our own family,” Rana told Reuters during an interview in her tiny apartment in the crowded port city of Karachi. She is a candidate for the Sindh provincial assembly from one of the city’s constituencies. “I always tell the transgenders to endure the things that their family says to them,” she said. “It’s more difficult to tolerate nasty things said by the world.” The Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that hijras could get national identity cards as a “third sex,” neither man nor woman. Now that they have legal standing, at least four members of the community are standing for elections.

Many hijras in Pakistan and in neighbouring India are attacked, raped or forced to work as sex workers to support themselves. Others beg for alms at traffic lights or on the streets.

Rana, 45, wants to change some of those injustices. After years of working as a dancing girl, she became a social worker dedicated to protecting her community.

Rana’s lowest point came five years ago, when she and friends held a public collection to help a colleague with cancer. They stood all day in the heat, but she only got $1 from a small girl who came forward and asked what they were doing. After listening, she solemnly handed over a note.


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