THE nation’s hijra community – mostly eunuchs and hermaphrodites – has long lived on the margins in the Muslim nation, barely tolerated and more often abused. A new ruling gives its members some rights. …
Los Angeles Times: A small victory for Pakistan's transgenders
The court decision to bolster transgender rights, however, has raised questions of what it means to be a hijra. The term refers to a born eunuch or hermaphrodite, a group seen as marginally acceptable because their birth was God’s will. But many others even less well-regarded in society – homosexuals, transvestites, bisexuals and transsexuals – also claim hijra status. …
Some sociologists and legal experts have suggested that eligibility for new ID cards or other benefits might require a physical exam and test to see how claimants urinate. …
Editorial comment:
THEREBY setting up yet another set of castes and further discrimination. Some “victory”!
Consider the possibilities – those who sit to pee, those who stand to pee, those who mostly stand but sometimes sit according to circumstances, those who mostly sit but will stand when they have to due to a lack of apparatus to sit and pee upon, ad infinitum.
The multitude of variations, each with their specific rights and privileges or lack of them, will surely give birth to a whole new layer of bureaucracy.
Where will it end? Will it ever end? Why do these people even bother?
Persecution is persecution whatever name it is given at the time.
