The Rawalpindi Police launched an initiative to introduce regular classes for transgenders in the city. But some Pakistanis are busy quarrelling over the difference between ‘transgender’ and ‘intersex’.
On the social media platform, Instagram, Pakistanis loaded the comment section of the page ‘properganda’ after it put out a post on this latest development.
Pakistanis descended on the Instagram handle to express their disappointment. They accused the Pakistani media of trying to normalise the word ‘transgender’ and often camouflaging other sexual identities within the same.
One of the users left a strongly worded comment stating that the two terms were not the same and should not be used to confuse people.
“Yes everything bout it is wrong transgender mean a person who has altered his genitilias by medical terms while inter sex is a person born with both male and female features so ye whats the points of using the wrong term? Should we start calling cricket and baseball the same sport cuz they both have bat and balls ofcourse not.. and using the right term should not be very hard,” wrote Muhammad Dayan Ali.
Reacting to Danyan’s comments, some users asked him to “grow up” and stop fussing about such things.
Another page that goes by the name ‘leap_for_intersex_and_trans’ posted comments pointing out how the term ‘transgender’ was an umbrella term that covered different sexual identities.
“Transgender is an umbrella term used for people whose birth sex doesn’t align with their gender. For instance, a person born with ambiguous genitalia or some other intersex condition transitions to become male or female with surgical or medical intervention is also called a transgender person,” the comment read.
While most of the audience were busy with their argument on ‘Transgender vs Intersex’, some social media users hailed the administration’s efforts.
A user named Arisha wrote that she wants to work as a teacher in such a school.
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First school for the third gender
In a collaborative effort, the Rawalpindi police and the district government started regular classes for transgender people in Islamia Higher Secondary School Liaquat Bagh on Tuesday.
The first day of the school recorded an attendance of 52 persons, which served as a positive signal to the contributing parties. The police said that they look forward to setting up more such independent schools in future.
The purpose behind such an initiative, the police spokesperson said, was to provide the community with the basic right to education so that are be able to lead better and independent lives.
It was aligned with Rawalpindi police’s broader effort to ensure a safer and more acceptable environment for transgenders. Earlier the police had inaugurated Transgender Protection Center, which provided support to the community beyond education.
The police spokesperson added that about 100 people were given respectable job opportunities through the programme.
Being a transgender in Pakistan
According to the 2017 Population and Housing Census in Pakistan, over 10,000 people identified themselves as the third gender in the South Asian country, which is considered rather ‘oppressive’.
However, things changed significantly after the implementation of Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act in 2018.
The Act defines sections of the third gender community as: “Intersex (Khusra) with a mixture of male and female genital features or congenital ambiguities, or (ii) Eunuch assigned male at birth but undergoes genital excision or castration; or (iii) a Transgender Man, Transgender Woman, Khawajasira, or any person whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the social norms and cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at the time of their birth.”
Over the years, there has been much debate on the Act with religious parties like Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan claiming that over 27,000 people changed their gender since the Act was passed.
While religious forces in the country try to nullify the Act, police forces like that of Rawalpindi and many social groups are putting their foot forward to make Pakistan ‘progressive’.