2022/05/26 by Daanish Mustafa, Abdul Rehman, Komal Raja +2
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East #Sex work and related issues #South Asian Cinema and Culture
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/0966369x.2022.2069685
openalex publication_date 2022/05/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Transgender bodies very effectively undermine social norms of gender binaries. We use a case study of transgender people in the twin cities of Rawalpindi/Islamabad in Pakistan to understand how social violence, middle class morality and relations to the state are embodied in transgender bodies. While in pre-colonial times the transgender people in South Asia were mandarins of the empire, during colonial and post-colonial times they have been reduced to the role of mendicants. We find that the research participants’ notions of a transgender identity are contradictory, in that they draw upon the idea of a feminine soul in a male body, but simultaneously they also consider it a constant process of becoming through deed. In urban Pakistan, it is through violent encounters with transgender bodies that toxic masculinities are relationally enacted. We argue, however, that transgender bodies also hold an emancipatory promise to bodies imprisoned in toxic masculinity.