Transgender Rights, Bangladesh Style

On March 30, Labannya Hijra became a Bangladeshi hero. Witnessing the murder by Islamist radicals of the secular blogger Oyasiqur Rhaman on a street in Dhaka, she grabbed at the fleeing assailants. Her courageous intervention led to the arrest of two men, who later confessed to the killing.

The most striking part of the story, though, was that Labannya Hijra actually is a hijra, the South Asian term for biological males who identify as women. (Hijras take the group’s name as part of their own; hence Labannya Hijra.).

So, as Labannya was lauded for her bravery, she also raised the question of whether members of this transgender community could be treated as active, equal citizens of Bangladesh.

Estimates of the number of hijras range from 10,000 to half a million (out of Bangladesh’s population of about 157 million). In 2013, the government granted “third gender” status to hijras. After Labannya’s heroic act, the government announced plans to recruit hijras as traffic police — a move widely welcomed. And last week, the central bank instructed financial institutions to spend a portion of their corporate social responsibility funds on the transgender community.

It appears that, like Caitlyn Jenner, Labannya has become a symbol of our shifting attitudes to what we regard as normative in the realms of sexuality and identity.

To read the full story please visit: http://www.nytimes.com