**2.3 Decolonizing the sexuality of Khawaja Sara and Hijra in contemporary Pakistan**

The previous section has thoroughly discussed the colonisation and decolonization of gender in contemporary periods. This section draws attention on to the living experience of Khawaja Sara and Hijra's in Peshawar city and examines participants' sexuality, sexual orientation, and their intimate relationship with other men as their boyfriends within the intersection of political, cultural, and religious forces. Furthermore, this section also considers the desires of Khawaja Sara and Hijra for others that provide a nuanced understanding to their sexual identity in contemporary period. As discussed in the earlier section of this chapter that same sex relationships and same sex desires are widely subjected to threat publicly and also are prohibited in the light of different laws in Pakistan, but the data conducted in this research show that the members of Khawaja Sara and Hijra's communities are practicing their sexuality in a way as they understand. During in-depth and photovoice interviews participants shared stories about their intimate relationships with other cis-heteronormative individuals and discussed their own desires to do so.

I demonstrate that the presence of Khawaja Sara and Hijra's in non-western culture is an important entity that offers a continuous challenge to the colonial legacy of gender and sexuality in contemporary Pakistan. This section describes- how the Khawaja Sara and Hijra's develop their intimate relationships with their boyfriends (Marakh) and will also discuss the responsibilities and obligations on both individuals when they are with one another during their intimate relationship. Moreover, the discussion will further highlight those challenges that push the communities of Khawaja Sara and Hijra away from the mainstream in contemporary Pakistan (**Figure 5**).
