Hijra— The Sex in Between

Abstract

Nature has not been uniform in its creations, producing a spectrum of variances wherever possible. Some have wealth while others are poor, few have attractive physical features while others have ugly faces. Similarly there are variations in human sex resulting into possibilities that cannot be clearly partitioned into either of the sexes. It’s this intermediate sex that is the subject of this study - the people known as Hijra or Chhakka. The other names labeled to them by the society are Khadra, Khusra, Zanana, Murat, K-2, third-sex, or third world. The researcher has adopted a qualitative approach for the study and has conducted informal interviews with the respondents while referring to secondary data wherever required. The researcher contacted respondents belonging to various localities of Karachi, practicing various religions (Muslims, Christians). The researcher has avoided the use of the names of these respondents and refers to them simply as respondents. The aim of the study is to understand the different aspects of the life of these people, from their perspective. They usually live as a community. The research has been carried out with the hope of letting the society understand their differences, lifestyle and the reasons behind their peculiar way of living.

“I would prefer to be dead than to live this way”: Lived experiences of stigma and discrimination against khwaja sira in Swat, Pakistan

“…In terms of their experiences with their families, many khwaja sira reported that they were forced to drop out of school at a relatively young age, due to high levels of social rejection within their families of origin (Mithani and Burfat, 2003 ; de Lind van Wijngaarden et al, 2013 ; Khan, 2020 ). They would run away from or be ousted from their homes, finding refuge in communal homes with other khwaja sira, known as deras , with a guru [leader] that housed and protected a group of chelas [disciples].…”