Like any other people, all the transgender community wants is to live with dignity. But in Pakistan, dignity for this sexual minority is almost impossible to find. From birth to their death beds, they are ostracised as if they are the bearers of some invisible disease. Forced to live with their own communities, forced to take menial jobs or to beg on the streets, forced to put up with mental and physical abuse, forced to deal with sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and rape, from their fellow citizens or even those tasked with protecting them, the transgender people of Pakistan are constantly swimming against the tidal waves, and we ignore their plight, because pretending they are invisible is easy.
In a recent heartbreaking case, Alisha, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Trans Action Alliance coordinator was shot six times on a Sunday in different parts of her body. While details are still emerging, some reports suggest this was a hate crime, while others claim it was the act of a criminal gang that exploits the community to shoot pornographic videos. One can imagine that Alisha was shot because she resisted.
Let’s hope that the K-P government looks into this case and brings the gang to justice, but for a government that until recently believed in negotiating with the Taliban while minority groups burned, what chance does the transgender community have?
For any other Pakistani, getting horrifically shot six times would be bad enough, but for Alisha, the nightmare continued at the hospital. According to a report on The Express Tribune, while in critical condition at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, she was kept waiting for an hour while the authorities debated on whether she belonged in the women or men’s ward. Finally, after protests from the patients, she was shift to the men’s, where incredibly enough, she was treated in front of the lavatory, as far away from the other patients as possible.
What did she do to be treated like this even when dying? She was born differently than the other patients, but is that a crime? Did it make her less human?
The details on the Trans Action Facebook page are even more disturbing.
It is disturbing that even the employees of a hospital cannot treat transgender people with respect. It is shocking that even when there to support a friend suffering from gunshot wounds, the transgender community suffered from sexual harassment at the hands of the hospital staff.
Eventually, Alesha died at the hospital. Trans Action Khyber Pakhtunkhwa says it is because she didn’t receive the treatment she needed on time. All she wanted to do was live her life in peace.
All photos: Screenshots
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