Spiritualising Marginality: Sufi Concepts and the Politics of Identity in Pakistan

Abstract

Similar to many parts of South Asia, hijras in Pakistan define themselves as a distinctive gender that is neither men nor women. This article explores hijra identity in Pakistan by focusing on the creative appropriation of Sufi discourses, practices and organisational forms by hijras to construct a spiritual gender identity for themselves. The political significance of this Sufi-informed identity can be located at two different levels. One is the level of the self. I argue in this article that engagement with Sufi concepts, such as faqiri and mast, is central to the construction of a dignified and powerful image of the hijra self that challenges the marginalised status assigned to hijras. The second level of analysis is concerned with the hijra community’s connection with Sufi networks. My argument here is that basing their community, which is cut-off from society and rejects the blood-ties based model of the family, on the model of Sufi groups allows hijras to legitimise their alternative social organisation. However, even though, Sufism offers hijras a possibility to access power, this does not mean that their spiritual claims are always recognised or that a spiritual gender identity does not have its own limitations.

Visions of Queer Anarchism: Gender, Desire, and Futurity in Omar Ali Khan’s Zibahkhana

“…But Balay is more than the violent dervish—he belongs to the gender-subversive Sufi malang community. Amen Jaffer’s unprecedented study of hijraism 7 as a spiritual identity closely ties khwajasira groups to malangs as the strain of fakiri and piri-muridi runs through both communities (Jaffer, 2017). The khwajasira and the malang come together not only through a shared place in Sufi discourse (Jaffer, 2017), they also function as queer social formations.…”

“…Amen Jaffer’s unprecedented study of hijraism 7 as a spiritual identity closely ties khwajasira groups to malangs as the strain of fakiri and piri-muridi runs through both communities (Jaffer, 2017). The khwajasira and the malang come together not only through a shared place in Sufi discourse (Jaffer, 2017), they also function as queer social formations. Homoerotic desires are a staple of Sufi poetry 8 which conceives the malang as one who bypasses gender in the pursuit of his beloved (Jaffer, 2017, p. 12), therefore making the malang an embodiment of queer desire.…”

“…The khwajasira and the malang come together not only through a shared place in Sufi discourse (Jaffer, 2017), they also function as queer social formations. Homoerotic desires are a staple of Sufi poetry 8 which conceives the malang as one who bypasses gender in the pursuit of his beloved (Jaffer, 2017, p. 12), therefore making the malang an embodiment of queer desire. The khwajasira–malang sibling pair of Zibahkhana , then, references this intergroup queer solidarity, and makes the siblings a queer force to reckon with.…”

“…Balay, like his cannibal family, relies on the consumption of human flesh for sustenance and survival, and his function in the family is to draw in unsuspecting travelers to his lair which happens to closely resemble a shrine. The dargah, according to Jaffer (2017), has been more than a carnivalesque site marked by bacchanalian celebrations of gender subversion, as it has also been a social equaliser for malang and khwajasira groups. 9 For the socially marginalised khwajasira, the shrine is an ‘oasis of acceptance’, where khwajasiras get to actively participate in rituals and ceremonies (Arshad, 2017).…”

“…Balay is not a queer erotic revision of the malang, for the malang had always been beyond gender and a symbol of a distinct kind of queer eroticism in historical Sufi accounts (Jaffer, 2017, p. 11). Balay then brings the malang back to its queer desiring, a representation which stands in stark opposition to the stereotypical understanding of malangs as asexual creatures of light and healing.…”