Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Mohsin Aziz on Monday said that the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2018 is “disgusting”.
“Trans people are disgusting. There is a profound difference between them and the intersex. The latter are a creation of the Almighty. The trans on the other hand are simply gross.” he said.
“Why do we have to protect the rights of transgenders? How can we accept rights of gays and lesbians?” he asked in the Senate.
Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on Monday referred the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, to the relevant standing committee for debate in order to reach a consensual decision on the matter.
A lot of misinformation is being propagated about the Act, including accusations that it is creating a pathway for same sex marriages. There is common misconception that as per the Act, any person can change their ID card from M to F and F to M based on their own perception. However, that is simply not the case. The rules that were notified under this Act clearly say that if you are a transgender man or a woman you can change your identification card on the basis of your self-perception but only to X, not to Male or Female.
A person having an X card can not marry a person with an ID card with a male or female gender mentioned on it. This provision rules out the possibility of same-sex marriage under the transgender act 201.
Holger Ziegeler, a German diplomat in Karachi, has been accused of sexually harassing attendees and groping a woman at an event in Karachi. The event took place on November 13 last year and was co-funded by the German Consulate.
“At the 2nd ScrapFest Pakistan event on November 13th/ 2021 at a privately hired venue; a woman attending was sexually harassed by one of the senior staff members from the German Consulate in Karachi,” wrote Urvah Khan in an Instagram post. She was the main organiser of the event.
“Since my last post on this incident, the German Federal Foreign Office’s unit responsible for investigating all allegations of sexual misconduct has directly contacted me. I have provided them with the video and text evidence I mentioned was in my possession,” wrote Urvah in a separate Instagram post.
Talking exclusively to The Current, Urvah Khan said that she organised the event ScrapFest, which promotes women and people from the LGBT community. The second event was co-funded by the German Consulate and Holger Ziegeler was German Consul General in Karachi.
The event took place on November 13, 2021, and Urvah officially issued a statement on April 22, 2022. Three days after issuing a statement, she contacted the German Foreign Office.
“It took a bit of time to make the statement because I needed time to speak to a victim and to convince the witnesses to come forward. We had a text message. After we found the video evidence and had collected the statements of the victims, I knew we had everything we needed.”
Regarding the status of the investigation, she said the German Foreign Office in Berlin is investigating the matter. “They are interviewing the witnesses and the victim. We are waiting to find out what is going to happen.”
Urvah further added that the woman who was groped by Holger Ziegeler reached out to her with the allegations the same night, and recorded her statement the next morning. “I brought it up with Holger. At first he was willing to apologise. The victim asked for a written apology as she was traumatised and did not want to see his face. He later retracted his apology and said that he did not harass her and this was a terrorist attack on his legacy.”
He also pressurised Urvah to get rid of the evidence.
Urvah said that when the German Consulate in Karachi was informed, they messaged her to take her Instagram posts down.
“They did not support me or try to investigate, which is one of the reasons I reached out to the German Foreign Office in Berlin.”
“A woman came by the stage where he groped her buttocks, then grabbed her hand.”
Urvah added that apart from the victim who was groped, Holger’s behaviour throughout the night was unacceptable and disrespectful towards many of the attendees. Many of them came forward as witnesses about how uncomfortable they felt.
“In terms of other attendees, he would try to go closer to them. A few of the witnesses said that they saw him trying to touch women on their body parts, on their stomachs, on their backs.”
“There was another witness who said that he was standing in front of him while he kept touching his friend’s back. She kept putting his hand back to where it was supposed to be,” added Urvah.
Asked why she chose to speak to an international publication, VICE, instead of a local one regarding the case, Urvah said, “Because he is a foreign diplomat, he had diplomatic immunity so that is why I was worried about PEMRA coming after an article or news item like this, and shutting it down. This is why I wanted the first article to be published in an international publication so PEMRA could not touch it.”
“The big issue is that he thought because he co-funded the event through the German Consulate, he could behave in this manner and could get away with it,” said Urvah. “I think it’s important if we all talk about what he did and I think it’s important to have a conversation.”
Talking exclusively to The Current, Dr Mehrub Moiz Awan, said, “I was hosting this event for a fee as requested by Urvah and a lot of my fans came specially for me.”
While narrating what happened at the event, Mehrub said, “The white man was visibly drunk or at least tipsy and interrupted me a few times during my jokes as well. I had especially made a point to crack jokes at white people and white privilege and our own audience was loving them. He tried to be a little handsy with me as well but as I’m a Pakistani transwoman, I know how to handle such guys very well.”
“Later I found out that a female left very upset because she was groped by the same guy. The dude actually sent Urvah a text as well that I saw with my own eyes. It said something like who’s this girl, she’s good. I want her number,” added Mehrub.
Disclaimer: The Current is not responsible for the statements mentioned in the story.
A Punjab government has officially launched a monthly financial aid programme called ‘Masawaat Programme’ for the welfare of the transgender community across the province under the support of the Punjab Social Protection Authority.
In this programme, transgenders who are over 40 years old will receive financial aid of Rs 3,000 per month from the government whereas transgenders who are aged between 18 and 40 with special needs will receive Rs 2,000 monthly.
The government also asked the transgender community to get themselves registered with NADRA under the category of ‘transgender’ to avail financial assistance. Those with ‘special needs’ are asked to produce the authentic certificate of disability for registration purposes.
The Punjab Social Protection Authority emphasised to need to immediately register to avail benefits from the programme as the last date of registration is January 31. Financial assistance will be received on registered mobile numbers of the beneficiaries of the Masawaat Programme.
The authority further added that they would assist transgender persons in finding employment.
Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) presented a bill in the upper house of Parliament Senate seeking an amendment in the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018, for the creation of a medical board that would recommend “whether a person’s gender should change, instead of them seeking a reassignment on the basis of their personal identity”, reports Dawn.
The bill was presented by JI’s Senator Mushtaq Ahmad who recommended the formation of such boards at the district level comprising of a professor doctor, a psychologist, a male general surgeon, a female general surgeon, and a chief medical officer after the approval by the Prime Minister (PM) and provincial Chief Ministers (CM).
The proposed law also seeks a ban of gender reassignment surgeries or any other treatment to change genital features on the basis of “any psychological disorder or gender dysphoria”. It also states that the law in its present form could lead to the “legalisation of homosexual marriages”.
However, the present law states: “A person recognised as transgender shall have the right to get himself or herself registered as per self-perceived gender identity with all government departments including, but not limited to NADRA (National Database and Registration Authority).”
According to the JI, under the current law, a person could get themselves registered as a man or a woman not on the basis of their biology but their “personal thoughts”.
Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari strongly opposed the proposed bill which was presented by JI and said the proposed amendment was aimed at “victimising” transgenders. She defended the current law and argued that it gave Transgenders Persons the right to identity.
“Till date, not a single complaint has been received regarding the misuse of this existing law,” she said.
JI and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) senators protested Mazari’s remarks, following which Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, sent the bill to the relevant standing committee for discussion.
According to data shared with the house, 16,530 cases of gender change from male to female were processed, 12,154 cases of female to male, 21 cases of transgender to male, nine cases of male to transgender and as many cases of transgender to female.
Transgender model Anaya Rahimi has hit out at Zartasha Coutoure for not uploading a fashion shoot which featured Trans models.
“Few glimpse of the shoot which me and my fellow trans divas did for the brand @zartashcouture” couture daughter of @hanifjewellers both are transphobic organisations how do I know this is the question well I met the owner and team few people are super cool but the owners aghhh they gave me weird feeling but as i told you all we have to give benefit of doubt in many case,” she wrote while sharing the pictures from the shoot.”
She continued by adding that the fashion brand paid them, “equal to nothing.”
“No contracts nothing it was just like hey we need to shoot the documentary today and shoot will be on this day. We did it leaving everything we were doing we did it because we were so happy that we were given this chance in real it became another disappointment when I came to know that they will not upload this shoot they uploaded the trailer which said coming soon but it never came on their story or any page,” she added.
“I kept asking about the shoot and at one point they stopped replying and then one day i uploaded a story about it suddenly they started calling and texting me asking me to remove the story and all and i did but finally tonight I feel like this work should not be wasted hence here it is.”
The Lahore High Court (LHC) has issued notices to the Punjab government, chief secretary, and inspector general ordering them to submit a report on Punjab police’s “discriminatory” actions toward transgender people, Arshad Ali reports for Samaa News.
“Articles 4, 18, and 25 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, provide a shield against any kind of discrimination especially in respect to a job or profession to earn a livelihood but the act of the respondents not to permit transgender persons to compete with the other applicants offends against the said provisions of the Constitution,” the court observed.
Sira Ashi, a transgender woman from Lahore, filed a court suit against the police earlier this month. She claimed that despite meeting all conditions, the Punjab police have been “discriminatory” in their treatment of transgender people by refusing to hire them.
The court also noted that the Transgender Persons Act, 2018, is not being implemented by public functionaries during the recruitment process. “Let notices be issued to the respondents (Punjab government, chief secretary, and inspector-general) with the direction to file their report before the next date of hearing,” Justice Khan directed.
Comedian and drag artist Moiz has come forward to share an incident of organised violence against him by a group of people, known as ‘Beelas’. A First Information Report (FIR) has also been registered by Moiz. The number of the FIR is 455/2021.
Moiz, while narrating the incident in a video message on Instagram, said that on the night of September 19, close to 2am, he and his friends went to a birthday celebration of a friend, where a group of ‘Beelas’ were already present. According to Moiz , the ‘Beelas’ wanted to rape the ‘londay‘ (khwaja sira/effeminate boys) present there.
As per Moiz’s Instagram post, “Beelas are an organised syndicate in Pakistan with dedicated WhatsApp groups, formal group networks, and open proud declaration that they are a group of men who terrorize and enact violence on khwaja siras, effeminate boys, and use gang rape as a method of enjoying themselves. They have their own names for the many other violent crimes that they do to khwaja sira bodies.”
He continued by saying it is time to shift the lens on ‘Beelas’ so they can be arrested. He continued by narrating the September 19 incident saying that they [Beelas] attacked his car and they kept asking [my friend] to hand him over to them. “One of them opened the door of the car and punched me in the face,” adding that they wanted to pull Moiz out of the car. Moiz said then he fought back. The group was armed, he said.
Moiz also said that his life was saved by an ‘angel’, his childhood best friend who he called right before they [Beelas] snatched his phone.
“I fought back for a good ten minutes and made their attempt to extract me from my car absolutely impossible,” Moiz’s Instagram caption read. Moiz told his friend on a very brief call, “400 people are going to gang rape me,” and sent his location to him.
A protest has been organised on Friday, at Karachi Press Club after 3:30pm, in solidarity with all the past and ongoing survivors and victims of Beelas’ violence against khwaja siras, trans-feminine bodies, and young boys.
Gino sab hassratein jo khoo’n hui hain tann kay maqtal mein Meray qaatil, hisaab-e-khoo’n baha’, yaha’n aisay nahin hota
گنو سب حسرتیں جو خوں ہوئ ہیں تن کے مقتل میں میرے قاتل، حساب خوں بہا، ایسے نہیں ہوتا
Social media users are coming forward to share their own stories and to show the support to Moiz and the transgender community of Pakistan:
I have seen beelas surrounding & closing in on their targets. I have seen the look in their eyes. I am not khwaja sira. Even so, it has made me want to claw my skin off. To be swallowed into the ground. The terror & fear it inspires makes you want to burn down society. All of it.
Read about the attempted rape incident against Moiz & it was horrific. The human rights situation in Pakistan is extremely alarming. Planned crimes have been happening against a particular community in Pakistan for so long & the majority around are not even bothered by it. https://t.co/azdg2aTSyi
The lives and liberties of our trans sisters are constantly under threat. Please show up and show that you care. There can be NO revolution without the centering of indigenous queer voices. Spread the word!! https://t.co/zzzRM5Fwhc
The Dilruba diva is known for her befitting replies to social media trolls.
The Sun Yaara star recently expressed her anger over the Minar-e-Pakistan incident, and has requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to take an action against such culprits. She also suggested to publicly punish the people involved in the harassment incident.
Education Minister Punjab, Murad Raas took to Twitter to share pictures of the transgender community attending the first day of school. “First Day of School for Transgenders by School Education Department Punjab,” the minister wrote in a Tweet.
“We have provided them everything that is required for Schooling. Dr Aithesham Secretary School South Punjab and his team have done a great job. TransEducation is the program,” he added.
ANNOUNCEMENT: First Day of School for Transgenders by School Education Department Punjab. We have provided them everything that is required for Schooling. Dr Aithesham Secretary School South Punjab and his team have done a great job. TransEducation is the program. pic.twitter.com/pTZkfKEOYX
Education Minister Punjab Murad Raas on Tuesday said that the Punjab government will establish separate schools for the transgender community.
“We are opening first ever Transgender School in Pakistan. Why would we deny education to anyone in our country? Our first school is opening in Multan tomorrow,” tweeted Murad Raas.
He further added: “We will open such schools in all Districts of Punjab InshAllah. One step at a time. Education for All.”
We are opening first ever Transgender School in Pakistan. Why would we deny education to anyone in our country? Our first school is opening in Multan tomorrow. We will open such schools in all Districts of Punjab InshAllah. One step at a time. Education for ALL. https://t.co/Xq19NV7yix
Addressing a ceremony held regarding Insaf Afternoon School Programme (IASP), Raas said that the government decided not to enroll transgenders in regular schools because of some reservations about the behaviour of other students. He added that the attitude of students of regular schools could be insulting towards the transgender community, which was why separate schools were being established for them.
