06/10/2022
Erasure of khuwajasira from Pakistan and south culture history under the British Raj is one of the dilemmas our land still hasnât recovered from. To me, it will always be absurd that our âeasternâ society that wants to shelter itself from âwesternâ propaganda doesnât realize that the khuwajasira were alienated by Britishers while they had thrived in Muslim ruling eras. So, what even are western values? You can deny culture but not history. In all honesty, most of the people who have âmoralâ problems with this community may have never interacted or respectfully befriended any khwajasira.
This is Bubbles, she is a trans woman and a marvelous artist. I have always been in awe of her talents and she explained this community very beautifully. She has been raising her voice on these issues and trying her best to make us cis people understand her community, so letâs try to understand. Khuwajasira is an umbrella term, it doesnât define any gender contrary to what most people believe. It is a centuries-old indigenous community that is inclusive of many gender spectrums, trans men and women, effeminate men, and intersex, it is a very structured and complex system that requires an understanding of our culture, land, and history without the lens of colonialism.
Just observing their family structure within the community can be enough to understand that it didnât come out just recently but is a generational model. They follow the guru and chela system. A guru is a parental or mentor figure who can take chelas as students or children as many members of this community are abandoned by their parents. This system allows them to have families and get the affection they deserve. In fact, they need the guruâs consent to even make their ID card which apparently is not settling with many Pakistanis. She also added that, (in her own words) From the age of 6-7, I knew something was different, of course back then I didn't know what those feelings were, but I remember telling an elder cousin of mine how I wanted to dress up, but as I got older, living in this hetero-patriarchal world, that true side of mine was pushed back somewhere and it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I started exploring my feminine side again and here I am today. I've never felt more comfortable in my own skin as I do now, and no other human can tell me this isn't who I truly am