January 7, 2024
By Arshad Mohmand
PESHAWAR
Sobia Khan is a trailblazer in her own right: in 2018, she made history when the Tribal News Network broadcast the voice of a khwaja sira to millions in Peshawar and the rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) through their radio station.
While Pakistani society as a whole is conservative, cultural and religious restrictions are far more strict in KP. And Sobia had to contend with plenty of vitriol during the initial stages of her career.
“People used to taunt my family that they have a hijra son and now he will host a radio show, but I am grateful to Allah that those very people now count the seconds before my programme comes on,” she says. Charming her listeners with her witticisms and clarity of voice, she used the opportunity to also raise awareness of human rights issues, especially the rights of the transgender community in KP. “I mostly talk about the problems faced by trans people. I do talk about other things as well, but I want to change the situation of the transgender community here and show people that they can work as well.”
Khwaja sira must not only grapple with a hostile society, but hostile families as well. Very few find acceptance – most trans women in Pakistan share the same tale of being thrown out of their homes and cut off from their biological families. It is understandable why Sobia considers the transgender community the most oppressed.
“If no one will stand by them, where will they go? How will they fill empty stomachs? How will they get the money to find a place to live? These questions should be put before people who claim that the transgender community does not work,” she asserts. “They must give us the opportunity to work.”
The khwaja sira community needs to be its own support network not just because they have been discarded by their families, but because outside they can be assaulted, attacked and even killed. In recent years, violent attacks against transgender women, many of which resulted in the deaths of the victims, are on the rise in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to one estimate, since 2015, approximately 100 khwaja siras have been killed in Peshawar alone, while there have been multiple reports of battery and torture.
“When the government will not take any step for our betterment, society will think that the state does not accept us. And if the state does not accept us, then why should society?” Sobia explains.
Many in the transgender community feel that if their families would care for and support them instead of turning them away, it can have a resounding effect on changing societal attitudes for the better.
Like Sobia, Rehana was among the extremely lucky ones to have attained a Masters. Now she has made a career as a civil society activist to raise her voice as well as the voice of her community.
“By raising our voice, we will have an identity in society. We will no longer be neglected or rejected. We will have a space where we will finally be given respect,” she declares.
Despite completing her education and profession, Sobia still has to contend with the narrowmindedness of the society she was born in every day.
“It’s not just that they misbehave with us. You can see it in their eyes… when we go out shopping, they charge us more than they would have from a man or a woman if we wanted to purchase anything. They do not deal with us like men or women,” Sobia says.
Although not every space is welcoming for them, there are some places and some people who would greet them with arms wide open. One of these people is Samina Bibi, who runs a beauty parlor in Peshawar. She gets a number of khwaja sira clients, and makes no difference between them or any other customer walking in through the doors of her business.
“Where will they go?” she posits. “They are here for business only, so if we throw them out, where will they go?”
Though there may be friendly faces in distant corners, Sobia feels that there is much that needs changing in order to make everywhere safe for her community, and to afford them the opportunity to live as any other.