Lockdown mars transgender people’s Eid celebration in Punjab

A large number of members of the community are economically weak

LAHORE:

On the occasion of Eidul Azha, few people in the transgender community sacrificed animals as they were not able to earn due to the lockdown of the last several months.

“A large number of transgender people are economically weak,” said a member of the transgender community, Zanaiya Chaudhry.

That’s why few transgender people were able to sacrifice animals. “The sacrificial meat was distributed as per the teachings of Islam,” said Chaudhry.

She said she had participated in collective sacrifice of animals and her share of meat was distributed among the transgender community.

Chaudhry said that her family had sacrificed a goat at home.

The transgender community also arranged a get together and invited each other on Eid.

A transgender person named Khushboo, resident of Model Town Lahore said that she had invited all her friends to her house on the second day of Eid.

Khushboo maintained that the occasion had made it possible for transgender people to gather after a gap of several weeks caused by the coronavirus.

“Some of our community members are great cook,” she said. “We prepared different dishes from sacrificial meat,” said Khushboo.

Neeli Rana, a local leader of transgender persons, said, “I was able to sacrifice an animal this year with the help of God.”

“After distributing the meat among the poor and deserving people, we prepared barbeque, meat curry and various other dishes from the remaining portion and then we all celebrated together,” said Rana.

Rana highlighted that transgender people are ignored in the society. “Especially, when it comes to religion, it is thought that they may have nothing to do with religion or religious values, even though we pray and fast and make sacrifices,” said Rana.

Leading religious scholar Hafiz Zubair Ahmad Zaheer said that transgender people must follow Islamic rules.

“Just like other Muslim men and women have a duty, if a transgender has more male-like characteristics, the same rules of men apply to those and if they have more female-like characteristics, then the Shariah rules regarding women will apply,” the scholar remarked.

“We should help and care for the transgender community in the same way we help the underprivileged and deserving,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2020.