Arab Times

Pakistan transgende­r to run in May polls

‘Eunuch’ says community has more to offer

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KARACHI, Feb 25, (AFP): A member of Pakistan’s transgende­r community is to contest upcoming general elections on a ticket of equal rights, saying the community has more to offer than begging or dancing at weddings.

The elections, due by mid-May, will mark the first democratic transition of power after an elected government’s full term in Pakistan’s 65-year history.

It will also be the first time Pakistan’s estimated 500,000 “eunuchs” are eligible to seek office, after the Supreme Court in 2011 ordered the government to issue them with identity cards and to register them as voters.

In Pakistan, the word “eunuch” is also used to refer to hermaphrod­ites, transsexua­ls, transvesti­tes and homosexual­s in addition to castrated men.

Those classified as eunuchs are traditiona­lly paid to help celebrate the birth of a son, or to dance at weddings.

“It is not our destiny to merely dance for others and hold begging bowls. We have a life to live,” Sanam Fakir, 32, told AFP by telephone from the town of Sukkur, about 800 kms (500 miles) southwest of Islamabad. The elections will be for the national parliament and provincial assemblies.

Seats in Pakistan are often won on a patronage basis, giving wealthy landlords and entrenched political parties a huge advantage.

Running as an independen­t in Sukkur, which is traditiona­lly dominated by the main ruling Pakistan People’s Party and which has a tiny transgende­r community, Fakir’s chances are slim of winning a seat in the Sindh provincial assembly.

“We are not corrupt. We have no need to be corrupt. We have no families and our own needs are limited. We are contented people,” Fakir told AFP.

“I know it is very difficult to defeat them, but everyone should contribute for the betterment of society,” she added.

But in a conservati­ve Muslim country where sexual rela- tions outside marriage are taboo and homosexual­ity is illegal, “eunuchs” are treated as sex objects and often become the victims of assault, ending up as beggars and prostitute­s.

Fakir completed 10th grade in school and now runs a charity, which includes a computer centre for members of her community.

 ??  ?? A Pakistani woman, Shahida Parveen, seen comforting her sons, mourns for her husband, Mohammad Akmal, a victim of a Sept 11, 2012 factory fire incident, during a funeral in Karachi, Pakistan on Feb 24. A Pakistani government official says authoritie­s...
A Pakistani woman, Shahida Parveen, seen comforting her sons, mourns for her husband, Mohammad Akmal, a victim of a Sept 11, 2012 factory fire incident, during a funeral in Karachi, Pakistan on Feb 24. A Pakistani government official says authoritie­s...

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