**1. Introduction**

This chapter begins with a discussion on to describe the colonisation and then the Islamisation of gender and sexual identities in contemporary Pakistan while taking case of Khawaja Sara and Hijra communities (globally called transgender people). They are the individuals who are born male, but they consider themselves other than

the identity that is given to them at their birth. Khawaja Sara and Hijra's are amongst distinct cultural and ancient communities in South Asia, and are predominantly found in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. At first glance, it may seem that Khawaja Sara and Hijra understand themselves as females because of their gender presentations, however, they have a much more complex and nuanced understanding towards their gender and sexual identities that often moves between and beyond the gender binary. The identities of the Khawaja Sara and Hijra are further informed or challenged by social, cultural, economic, religious, and political forces that both shape the gender and sexual identities in the different ways that Khawaja Sara and Hijra understand and render their identities problematic and subject to discourses of stigma and disgrace from their families and the wider community. This process means that the identities of Khawaja Sara and Hijra are multiple, complex, and ambiguous in contemporary Pakistan.

The identities of Khawaja Sara and Hijra in contemporary Pakistan are made complex because of the ways in which they are understood historically, culturally, and socially. So, Khawaja Sara and Hijra are often subject to negative positioning from wider Pakistani society and are negatively understood by general society as hermaphrodites, neither men nor women, or a third category of gender [1–3]. These understandings isolate them both socially and culturally in the communities where they live. However, the communities of Khawaja Sara and Hijra do not identify and understand themselves in this way as this chapter attests. In this vein, the knowledge so far produced by academicians, researchers, advocacy networks and other allies' organisations have strongly declared that Hijra and Khawaja Sara are the most discriminated and marginalised people in contemporary Pakistan, but no developed thesis has been found on the self-narratives and self-understandings of Khawaja Sara and Hijra towards their gender identity and sexual orientation in contemporary Pakistan where they could discuss the colonisation and Islamisation of their gender and sexuality and their different ways of resistance and resilience that are informing decolonization of gender and sexuality in contemporary periods.

Therefore, this chapter draws attention to the findings of a research project conducted with the transgender communities in Peshawar city using face to face direction and a novice photovoice method that generated empirical and photographical data. Peshawar city is situated in the Northern region of Pakistan that has a blend of Pashtu culture which is largely rigid and gives high value to the local norms and religious Islamic teachings. The discussion in this chapter begins with a brief summary of how the gender and sexuality has been colonised and then Islamised respectively and what are the implications faced by members of Khawaja Sara and Hijra communities in Peshawar because of coloniality and Islamisation of gender and sexuality at time of British colonialism and now in postcolonial contemporary periods.

The chapter presents the self-narratives and personal stories of marginalisation, precarity, abuses and violence that are shared and discussed by members of Khawaja Sara and Hijra communities during the data collection process. Later in the chapter, the different ways of decolonization of gender and sexuality is discussed that are performed and practiced by the participants when they are living in their guru-cheela houses and away from their family members. Although the performance and the practices they do, put them in risky and threatful situation in their life but still they are doing them actively because activities like dancing, singing and sex work are their only ways of earning and also their decolonial strategy against the colonised and Islamised policies.

This chapter is divided in to three broad sections. First section starts with a debate on the colonialization and the Islamisation of gender and sexuality using the

### *Decolonization of Gender and Sexuality: Exploring the Stories of Discrimination… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108684*

already existing literature that is stretched from British colonialism in subcontinent to postcolonial Pakistan and then to the military regime of General Zia-ul-Haq- a military dictator in Pakistan in the year 1978–1988. The second section examines the different ways of state institutions, civil society, allies' organisations, and the efforts of members from Khawaja Sara and Hijra communities to decolonise gender and sexuality and the way they legitimise their positionality in contemporary Pakistan. The last section of this chapter is very important because it first describes the precarious positionalities of Khawaja Sara and Hijras and then unpack the decolonialization of gender and sexuality with the description of resistance and resilience amongst the Khawaja Sara and Hijra communities in Peshawar against all forms of marginalisation, oppression, violence and hate crimes.

### **1.1 Colonisation and Islamisation of sexuality**

Before discussing the decolonization of gender and sexuality of Khawaja Sara and Hijra, it is worth first briefly describing how gender and sexuality is colonised, misunderstood, and criminalised that made complexities in the identities of trans communities during British colonialism and then Islamised in postcolonial Pakistan that further declared them the untouchables and sinful communities [4]. My discussion in this section will seek answers of two questions: how and why colonial powers in subcontinent sought to regulate gender and sexuality? In exploring this question my focus will be to find ways that describe how colonialism was and still has an impact on the lives of Khawaja Sara and Hijra's and secondly, to unfold as how and why sexuality was considered an important subject in Hudood Ordinance 1970 in postcolonial Pakistan? My examination around this question will expose the different ways where postcolonialism has an impact on the gender and sexuality in Pakistan. This will be an essential step for two reasons because seeking answers for both the above questions will become a central premise, which will open a debate on the understanding of gender and sexuality in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the subcontinent, and then in postcolonial Pakistan. My discussion in this section will give an account of colonial discourse that legally represented Khawaja Sara and Hijra as obscene and indecent individuals. Therefore, to illustrate colonial gender and sexuality, I first specifically account Section-377, Criminal Tribal Act 1871 in colonial subcontinent and then draw my discussion to Zia's Zina Ordinance (1979) to postcolonial Pakistan.

### **1.2 Section-377: An anti-same sex regulation**

In this section, I discuss the historical trajectory of Section-377 that became an anti-homosexual regulation for same sex relationship in the subcontinent [5]. My discussion in this section tries to answer that how and why the Britishers as colonial rulers were keen to legislate anti-homosexual laws and to govern sexuality [6]. Chaudhry [7] writes in his LLM1 thesis that before the Britishers arrival into the subcontinent, Indians were ruled by different kingdoms where sexuality was governed through religious texts, poetry, culture, music and therefore these precolonial societies had no uniform laws to regulate same sex relationship between men and boys. Same sex relationships were the common pattern in Mughal periods because the noblemen used to have sex with Khawaja Sara and Hijra's and this was too considered an act of

<sup>1</sup> LLM stands for Latin Legum Magister (Master of Laws).

masculinity in ancient Indian societies [8, 9]. Perhaps, the concept of sexuality was more fluid during precolonial periods than now and in the colonial time.

During British colonialism, they regulated the gender and sexuality in the subcontinent, where anti-homosexual laws like section-377 were introduced in the later part of 19th Century that criminalised the same-sex behaviours in British India [10]. British empire perceived the members of Khawaja Sar and Hijra communities as cisgender men, and they were considered habitual sodomite which criminalised their relationships, and they were therefore labelled as same sex professional individuals which later categorised as homosexuals [11, 12].

#### **1.3 Criminal Tribal Act 1871**

In this section I quickly describe CTA 1871 more in detail and also highlight how and why the gender and sexuality was governed and colonised within in the domain of CTA in the British colonialism. The term "Criminal Tribe" was introduced by the Britisher during their colonialism in India. Speaking broadly, Britisher law makers included all those individuals and communities whom they want to govern and thereby they were described and declared criminals. To govern gender and sexuality in the subcontinent, Part II of the Criminal Tribal Act 1871 was developed specifically for Khawaja Sara and Hijra's to control, regulate and register them in the communities of criminals [13]. Therefore, under the CTA (1871) *Hijra's were introduced as eunuchs who were the male persons and admitted themselves or through medical grounds as an impotent individual* [14, 15]*.* This explains that those individuals who were involved in 'obscene performance' like singing, dancing in the streets, wearing female clothes, involved in kidnapping of minors and castration were liable to be registered as eunuchs [14, 16].

To control and regulate Khawaja Sara and Hijra's and to stop them from their labelled obscene behaviour, CTA was formulated and focused on the following three main areas,


Under the CTA 1871 Britishers imposed penalties like imprisonment for up to 2 years with fine if any Khawaja Sara and Hijra's was found in wearing women's clothes and jewellery in the public places and on the streets [15]. Along with this punishment many Hijra's and Khawaja Sara were deprived from their civil rights, and they were no longer in the position to transfer their assets and other properties to their descendants [17]. In this way, Khawaja Sara and Hijras were deprived from their choice to pass their stipends, properties, and other savings to their cheelas. This further effected these communities because majority of the Hijras and Khawaja Sara were living without their family member or another guardianship. In this way, most of the properties belonging to the Hijra were confiscated and disposed to the Government. These strict policies and malpractices not only enriched the administration's treasures upon taking hold on the properties of Khawaja Sara and Hijras but marginalised them in their daily life that is still prevailing in the contemporary periods. With the help of these policies the Britishers governed the gender and sexuality in the subcontinent

that ultimately oppressed the communities of Khawaja Sara and Hijra's who were once considered amongst the nobilities inside the Mughal Harems during the precolonial periods [18].

#### **1.4 Hudood ordinance (1979)-An Islamised discourse**

On the on onset of postcolonial period in Pakistan, many British regulations were brought forward to the newly independent country that did not stop the discrimination and oppression of gender minorities in Pakistan. With all this, General Zia-ul-Haq, a military dictator, enacted four different Ordinances in 1979 during his military takeover in Pakistan. These Ordinances were given the name of Hudood Ordinance collectively. Zia's Hudood Ordinance was promulgated to make some significance changes in the country's criminal law in order to develop an Islamised nation. Amongst the Ordinances, Zina2 (Adultery) was declared an illegal practice and was considered a violation against the Quran and Islamic practices. Zina was further declared an illegal practice and a crime against the state. Any Person being found committing a Zina or have done it in the past was legalised of stoning to death [19].

In *Quran*, the punishment for Zina for un-married people is 100 lashes while for married individuals it is stoning to death [20]. As part of Islamisation, Zia's vision was based on the imposition of Sharia Law. Therefore, in major part of Hudood Ordinance priority was given to the implementation of punishments mentioned in the holy Quran and Sunna for illegal practices like Zina, Qazf (false accusation of Zina), consumption of alcohol, and involvement in stealing or robbery.

The above discussion highlights that General Zia ul-Haq with his political Islamic vision Islamised sexuality in postcolonial Pakistan. I argue that Zia Hudood ordinance in postcolonial Pakistan has followed the Britisher's actions against gender and sexual. Under the Hudood Ordinance 1979, strict punishments like life imprisonments and stoning were imposed that denied the rights of same sex attracted individuals in postcolonial Pakistan. Similarly, as discussed here and in chapter-3, Khawaja Sara and Hijra's were also categorised as homosexuals because of their relationships with cis-heterosexual men in contemporary Pakistan.

The historical trajectory discussed here means that the majority of religious leaders in contemporary Pakistan oppose the gender and sexual identities of Khawaja Sara and Hijra's because of religious teachings, Islamic doctrines and the legacy of colonial rule. They further widely criticised the activities of trans communities both in their public and private sphere considering them immoral and against the teachings of Islam and also not abiding the local culture. In this way, many members of the Khawaja Sara and Hijra community remain an easy target of hate and violence in the societies where they are living.

#### **1.5 Musharraf enlightened moderation policy (2003)- A liberal discourse**

So far, in the previous sections I have discussed the Colonialization and Islamisation of gender and sexuality and its impact on the gender minorities in colonial and postcolonial periods. In this section, I will now discuss Musharraf's Policy of Enlightened Moderation (2003) which laid the foundation of modernity,

<sup>2</sup> Zina was considered any physical sexual contact or action between male and female who are not bounded under the marriage. Thus, any sexual activity or sexual relationship out of the marriage was considered Zina in Hudood Ordinance

de-radicalization and decolonization of gender and sexuality in Pakistan. My main discussion in this section will be to first introduce General Pervez Musharraf as a military dictator and his differences with Zia-ul- Haq. Next, Musharraf's idea of Enlightened Moderation will be described in detail and at the end I will explain as how and why Musharraf Enlightened Moderation was important to the decoloniality of gender and sexuality in contemporary Pakistan.

General Pervez Musharraf, the last military dictator in Pakistan, imposed a military coup in 1999 and became the President of Pakistan. He held this position for more than 10 years and from 1999 to 2008. Unlike Zia-ul-Haq, who imposed misogynist and oppressive Islamisation policies which targeted women and sexual minorities that institutionalised legal and social discrimination, Musharraf was more open and broader minded, and, in this way, he introduced his policy of enlightened moderation in 2003 that focused on modernity, secularism, and liberal credentials [21]. Enlightened Moderation was an attempt to rebuild Muslim society in Pakistan with liberal concepts and to get rid of Islamic values and denounce the Islamic traditions that have an impact both in the media and at public gatherings.

On 1st June 2004 General Musharraf explains his Idea of Enlightened Moderation with an article in Washington Post.

*Enlightened Moderation is an important approach, which I think is a win for all - for both the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. It is a two-pronged strategy. The first part is for the Muslim world to shun militancy and extremism and adopt the path of socioeconomic uplift. The second is for the West, and the United States in particular, to seek to resolve all political disputes with justice and to aid in the socioeconomic betterment of the deprived Muslim world (Musharraf, 2004).*

The above statement illustrates two different situations. One is focused on militancy and extremism in the Muslim world, and the other is a suggestion that western communities end ongoing conflicts with Muslim nations. According to Musharraf, the Muslim world needed to adopt the modern pathways and liberal ideology to defeat extremism and militancy, while the west, especially the United States, was required to provide enough funds and other aids to devise strategies with their key allies' and to gain control on the unwanted extremism and militancy. Musharraf produced his idea of Enlightened Moderation right at the time when the war on terror and hostility between Islam and west were at their peak after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Therefore, addressing the 58th session of United Nations General Assembly in September 2003, General Pervez Musharraf, discussed the new form of threats and challenges to peace and security after 9/11 and the confrontation between the east and the west [22]. In this way, with his concept of enlightened moderation Musharraf had a vision of a progressive and modern society that not only de-radicalised the Islamised mindedness in Pakistan [23], but also in a way it became a trajectory towards decolonization.

Musharraf's Enlightened Moderation provided many opportunities especially to women in Pakistan that empowered them both legally, socially, economically, and politically. New laws were formulated, and many discriminatory laws were repealed during Musharraf's military regime in Pakistan [24]. Furthermore, both print and electronic media was made independent and many trans supportive performance were aired in different late night talk shows. Amongst the policy enactment for the empowerment of women, an honour killing bill was introduced that later became a criminal law in 2004. Under this bill, honour killing was declared a criminal offence and a punishable act in the court of law (Modaik, 2005). Similarly, women protection *Decolonization of Gender and Sexuality: Exploring the Stories of Discrimination… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108684*

act-2006 was introduced that provided security and protection to women in the workplace. This policy was enacted against the workplace harassment of women in Pakistan [25] and lastly the Presidential Ordinance (2006) "the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance, 2006" allowed every kind of bail to women except their charges in terrorism and murder. Musharraf's regime was considered an important period for women empowerment because it also made reforms in Hudood Ordinance of 1979. The Government appointed 3 commissions that recommended reforms in the Hudood Ordinance in 2006 [26].

At the same time, many Khawaja Sara and Hijra's were appointed as tax collector3 in the government department [27] and many others have got their roles in different video documentaries in Pakistan. A famous LGBT documentary "Transgender; Pakistan open secret4 " explained the real-life stories of many Khawaja Sara and Hijra's in Pakistan and also described their lifelong problem that they were facing in their daily life. These problems were in major to discuss the socio-cultural, economic, and political life of transgender communities in Pakistan.

Musharraf's regime was very important because it laid the foundation of a liberal Islamic state that further opened different ways for the decolonization of gender and sexuality in Pakistan. Because with secular and liberal approach, Musharraf formulated many policies and also made reforms in Hudood Ordinance that promoted gender equality and women empowerment in Pakistan. At the same time electronic media were less censored which allow different trans character tv shows, video documentaries that never happened before in Pakistan. These tv shows and video documentaries were the initial tactics by the government via a liberal discourse to moralise the identities of Khawaja Sara and Hijra's in the strict, Islamised, and patriarchal cultural environment of Pakistan.

### **1.6 Aurat March in contemporary Pakistan- A secular right based discourse towards decolonization of gender and sexuality**

Since 2018, a new right based feminist discourse of Aurat March (Women March) is emerged with a slogan Mera Jisam Mere Marzi (My body My Choice) which has got a meteoric rise in contemporary Pakistan. This event is organised on International Women's Day (8th March), Pakistani feminists gather in large numbers across the different cities against patriarchy and demand for women rights and gender equality. The Auat march is inspired from a global #MeToo movement [28]. The sole objective of the Aurat march is to advocate for the rights of women and ensure gender equality in Pakistan, but many of the clergies argue against the 'new' feminist moment and view it as the imposition of western debauchery in Pakistan. In this context not much has been written so far in academia but some chunks of information have been produced in the media talk shows and local newspapers that is largely against this movement.

My discussion in this section has two important points. First, it will explain, how gender and sexuality is decolonizing in the context of Aurat march in contemporary Pakistan and secondly, how Aurat march will become a very important game changer for Khawaja Sara and Hijra's as part of the women's movement. Therefore, when I say

<sup>3</sup> Guardian story on Hijras as tax collectors in Pakistan https: //www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/08/ pakistan-hijra-transgender-tax-collectors

<sup>4</sup> Transgender: Pakistan open secret https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Iji\_ JmnkM

woman or Aurat, I consider all those who self-identify as a woman, irrespective of their assigned sex at birth.

Najeeb [29] writes that Aurat March in Pakistan is a trajectory to advocate for the rights of women because women rights are already declared and recognised by religion, society, culture, and constitution. So, struggling for to achieve these rights is not challenging religion. Similarly, Siddiqui [30] writes in Tribune about the facts of Aurat March in Pakistan. The writer emphasises that although the Aurat March is an advocacy movement to empower women in their decision making and their choices, but certain clergies and right-wing columnist and commentators have not only condemned it in the past but also claimed that it is an un-Islamic act and they further demanded to charge the organisers under blasphemy-which carries the penalty of death in Pakistan. The provincial government of Khyber Pukhtunkhawa passed legislation and demanded an inquiry to investigate the possibility of a foreign agenda that is supporting the Aurat march in Pakistan [31]. In this way, majority of the feminists' organisers have received intense backlash and even death and rape threats since the inception of this movement in Pakistan [32].

This shows the difficult circumstance for women and other key allies to discuss women or gender issues in Pakistan. When a women's jisam (bodies) are discussed openly, it is considered negative, and implies sexualised intentions. Therefore, it is hard in a religio-cultural patriarchal country like Pakistan to discuss or talk openly about choices and jism (body). Additionally, the dominance of men in Pakistan's patriarchal society has created an over-whelming mindset that instead of holding the perpetrators accountable in major cases like rape, enforced marriages, and honour killing, the victims are blamed (Nafees, 2020). A local newspaper shows the following statistics where 97% of men has committed crimes against the women,

*During last three years, nearly 3794 persons became victims of social crimes in the country that included violence like enmity (572 killed, 214 injured), honour killing (512 & 28), domestic violence (320 and 91), sexual violence (90 and 282), petty dispute (220 and 71), property dispute (181 and 83), child abuse (101 and 75), matrimonial dispute (100 and 32), and many other crimes left 188 dead and 155 injured. If we look at the gender of the perpetrators who committed these crimes, we find only 122 females out of 3794 perpetrators – nearly 3% of these crimes were committed by females against 97% male perpetrators (Nayadur, 2020).*

Although, the environment is very tough for the Aurat March in Pakistan because of the male dominant society where patriarchy is deeply embedded, but still every year the supporters of Aurat March are growing in numbers, and they are largely advocating for the rights of women or feminism in Pakistan. I demonstrate that patriarchal societies speak for male dominancy and introduce a male dominant culture that produce ways to (neo) colonisation. This practice gives authority to men and declare them supreme gender in the society. In this way, the patriarchy becomes an agency in provision of power and authority to male gender in contemporary periods, but decolonization is also a reality that goes hand on hand and in against with the (neo) colonial practices in contemporary periods. Decolonization not only speaks against the power and authority but also perform advocacy for women rights and feminism. In this way, colonial forms of power and authorities do not remain persistent and contentiously changing with respect to the time.

*Decolonization of Gender and Sexuality: Exploring the Stories of Discrimination… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108684*

#### **1.7 Methodology**

The qualitative data that is presented in this chapter is collected in Peshawar which is an urban space of the province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. This research project is approved by Human Resource Ethics Committee (HREC), a committee responsible to analyse and evaluate all methods and methodologies under informed ethical standards. During the data collection in-depth and photo-elicitation interviews were conducted with ten members of Guru-Cheela communities (18 years and above) and 04 photovoice interviews within the guru-cheela communities. Participants include gurus and cheelas who resided in their Deras. They were asked open ended questions regarding their early childhood life in their parental houses, their acceptance into their family and community, and how their parents responded to their gender and sexual identity. All the participants belong to a diverse group with different socio-economic, gender and sexuality status and majority of them have a rural family background, but at the time of interview, they migrated to Peshawar to find security, anonymity, and earning opportunities. The exit population of trans communities is not known but some of the Government and non-government level statistics are available, but they are not authentic or fail to provide the exact population of transgender communities in Pakistan. Amongst these statistics the census conducted in Pakistan in 2017 have of reported that there are 10,418 Khawaja Sara individuals in Pakistan, but this figure was widely criticised by the national level organisation with a question as how in a population of 208 million will only be this least numbering of trans individuals.

The process of data collection was scheduled and completed in the months between May–September 2020, when the Government of Pakistan announced relaxation in the COVID-19 pandemic, public health lockdown restrictions. All the interviews were face-to-face and recorded through an audio recorder after obtaining consent from the participants. On completion of the face to face in depth and photoelicitation interviews, the interviews were carefully translated and transcribed and properly analysed with thematic analysis using computer-based software i.e., NVIVO.
