Transgender Communities in Pakistan: Unravelling Perceptions and Moving Forward Ayesha Salman
Ayesha Salman*
No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding. - Plato

This paper will centre around a hugely marginalised section of society in Pakistan, the transgender community; it will also aim to dispel the widely accepted notion that the worth of a human being should be defined by their gender. The paper will discuss the physical and psychological abuse suffered by members of this community, and also look at recent changes that the government has made to give more rights to transgender individuals and make society in Pakistan a more inclusive one. For instance, the National Assembly (NA) has recently enacted a law to protect the rights of the transgender community, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018. Its main provisions validate transgender identity and expression; and provide transgender men and women the rights they have under Pakistan’s Constitution. The new law provides transgender people the right to register as however they perceive their own gender identity to be on national identity cards and documents. It also provides more freedom from discrimination in education, health, travel, renting accommodation, employment, inheritance, property rights, provision of goods and services and voting.

The paper will first look at examples of those who have been killed or have endured extreme forms of prejudice due to non-acceptance of their gender. The discussion will focus on one particular case study of ‘Ruby’. Her story is vital for what she has been subjected to as an individual, but also if we are to look at the bigger picture and accept that there are many others who have had to go through similar forms of pain and torture. The case study will raise the important point that Pakistan is not giving the voiceless a voice, but simply only now, learning to listen. The paper will also highlight how education and the media can help people look at gender and gender identity in a new light with a view to changing perceptions with the hope that the future will be safe and secure for those who have lived in the dark for so long.

* Ms Ayesha Salman is a writer and a poet. Her novel Blue Dust was published in 2012 and her poems have featured in literary journals in the UK and in a poetry anthology in Pakistan. Several of her papers on religious minorities, and the significance of art and literature in shaping perceptions have been published by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute’s anthologies.