Sabina “yes I was a boy”! But from a young age, I loved to play with girls and dolls. When I went to school my friends didn’t want to sit beside me as they said “you are not like us, you are different by nature “. Started to say that I am a Hijra (transgender). Nobody wanted to talk with me and also with my family. People in our area started to make our life very difficult. So, I decided to go away from my family. As I didn’t want my family to suffer for me. Now it’s been 7 years since I left my family.
“Love is the most wonderful feeling in the world. Everyone deserves love in their life. But in a transgender life, they cannot get love from anyone, not from family, not from society, and not from any loved one. Throughout their lives, they seek love.”
In Bangladesh transgender, people are treated brutally because they do not have the gender identity approved by society and/or the government. Although the government of Bangladesh has recognized transgender people as the ‘third gender’ the change has not yet been implemented on their national identity cards. Transgender individuals are commonly known as ‘Hijra’ in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.
According to the research, there are between 15,000 to .5 million Hijra (transgender) living in different parts of the country. Mostly they live in slums with the Hijra (transgender) community as the landlords inflate the prices to third-gender individuals looking to rent living space.
In our society, some people believe that third-gender individuals are bad luck while others think they have spiritual power. Many trusts that because the Hijra is deprived, Allah will grant their prayer faster; and their blessings may be good for newlyweds or newborns. But wherever they go they are not treated normally like other citizens. Then where do we go and what is our destiny?
