Legalizing Hijras (Transgenders) in Patriarchy: Barriers in Legal Registration of Hijras in Punjab, Pakistan
Abstract
In the most recent decade, a couple of nations have made a category of transgender to the legally accepted gender deviants. We have little or no knowledge of the reaction by the gender deviant’s vis-à-vis the legislation of the “legal transgender identity”. In order to deal with this gap, the present study investigates the diverse socio-religious, and other organizational discourses that have developed over the recent transgender identity in Pakistani society. Notwithstanding the fact that the legal transgenders’ identity was reformed to define the unique gender character of the Hijras, however, most of these gender deviants are, for instance, adamant to keep registering themselves as “Men” amidst a patriarchal setting. The findings of the study reveal that the patriarchal stigma, high compliance cost, and, among many other factors, the inadequate substantial advantages related to the legal transgender identity prevent the Hijras from getting registered. It also indicates of the barriers with the legal transgenders identity within a patriarchal socio-legal system where significant advantages related to the “Man” are relinquished by registering. Moreover, the present study alerts against over highlighting the symbolic value of legal acknowledgment of the gender deviant groups
Authors
Umair Ahmed
Lecturer & PhD. Scholar, Department of Sociology & Criminology, University of Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan
Prof. Dr. Ghulam Yasin
Professor, Department of Sociology & Criminology, University of Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan
Keywords
Legal Identity of Hijras, Social exclusion of Hijras, Transgender in Pakistan