NAROWAL: Amber Shahzadi (real name Nadeem) is a resident of Jhelum and she has been working with dance parties for four years.

She holds a BS Honours degree and comes from an educated family. She says she wanted to get higher education but left home to join transperson community due to the inappropriate attitude of her family members and others around her.

“I started working with a transpersons group in Wazirabad and after seeing my performance, a guru of Narowal bought me for Rs1m. For the last two years, I have been performing dances in functions and all my earnings goes to my guru.”

Shahzadi wants to leave the life with transgender persons community, dancing in the parties. She had got a job offer from an NGO too but her guru ‘didn’t set her free’ as the guru is demanding Rs2.5m to release her.

Amber Shahzadi is not alone who is facing this predicament as the business of sale and purchase of transpersons within their own community is a common practice. This forces the members of this marginalised class to live a life of slavery in such a way that their emancipation from their own gurus looks impossible.

Runaway children

Most of the transpersons who adopt dance as their profession and join their community groups run by the gurus are runaway children or youths who leave their homes as soon as they grow enough to realise that they are different from others.

Thirty-five years old Ayesha alias Aishwarya, a resident of Mohalla Khawajgan, Gujrat, has a story similar to that of Shahzadi. She has four brothers and two sisters and belongs to a noble family as her father is a lawyer. She was 14 when her mother died and her brothers started imposing restrictions on her for no reason. She ran away from home at the age of 16 and reached a group of transpersons in the Fatehpur area of Lahore.

Twenty-seven years old Nasheeli (name changed), a resident of Qiyampur village in the suburbs of Narowal, resides in the group of Guru Imran alias Imrani Nathali near Shiranwala in Gujranwala. She ran away from her home at the age of 18 and started working with a transpersons dance group in Sialkot.

Dr Mumtaz Ahmad Butt, a psychologist, says after the age of 12 when they start having physical changes, the transpersons need more attention from their parents. He laments that such children are forced to run from their homes.

Gurus and filthy trade

After running away from their home, the transpersons take refuge in dance groups run by a guru. The guru is mostly a transperson who changes his role after a certain age when she can’t dance any longer.

She becomes the head of her group and takes up a managerial role.

The guru provides protection to the transpersons in her group and gives them accommodation, food and other facilities.

The young transpersons who run away from their homes and families are given protection and training as dancers. However, such protection has a darker side too, including financial exploitation as the guru takes all money earned by her group members.

Aishwarya says that Guru Ilyas in Lahore gave her a lot of love, kept her like her own children and started taking her to dance parties.

“I learned to dance by watching other transpersons. I stayed with my guru for 10 years and earned millions of rupees but gave it all to the guru.”

She says she refused to work for the guru due to a quarrel with other transpersons in the group. She went to another group at Bhatta Chowk, Lahore, and took shelter there.

Guru Ilyas sold her to a new guru for Rs0.5m. After four years, the next guru sold her to another guru in Daska for Rs0.7m.

Sexual exploitation

Nasheeli of Narowal alleges that her guru kept sexually exploiting her for years.

“At first, he would himself sexually abuse me but later his friends also joined him.”

Fed up with sexual brutality, she started resisting. At this, her guru sold her after keeping her for five years for just Rs200,000 to another guru near Data Darbar in Lahore. Two years later, she was again sold to one Guru Imrani in Gujranwala for Rs300,000. Nasheeli alleges that her current guru forces her to do prostitution also when she goes to dance parties.

The transperson dancers say dance parties don’t happen during the months of Ramazan or Muharram when no marriage ceremonies are held. At such times, as they can’t make any earnings, many of them get involved into prostitution to make ends meet.

Story from Gurus’ side

Guru Nargis aka Nari is the ‘head guru’ of district Narowal as all gurus in the area respect and regard her and accept her as authority. She rejects the allegations of trade of transpersons and terms them baseless.

“If transpersons run away from their homes and come to us, we spend millions of rupees on their training them and fulfilling their other needs. Some of them take millions of rupees as loans from their gurus to fulfill their needs and desires.”

Nari claims that members of groups working under a guru are free, saying that they can work with any guru they want but it is the guru’s right to get back the loan money that a transperson takes from her.

Guru Safdar Ali alias Rangeela of Sialkot says that the gurus provide protection to their group members from the society. She alleges that transpersons sometimes indulge in drug abuse and prostitution of their free will.

“Allegations of forced prostitution are baseless and false.”

Guru Rangeela says such transgender dancers who are into drugs start prostitution during the months of Ramazan and Muharram and the gurus never force them to do it.

No way out

As transgender dancers don’t have any money of their own, they remain stuck with the gurus.

“How can I arrange Rs2.5m to get freedom from my guru,” asks Ambar Shahzadi, saying that millions of rupees she earns from dance parties go to her guru and she has no money of her own. She terms her life a life of slavery.

Shahzadi says that transgender groups are very strong all over Pakistan and they can buy officers if transpersons go to register their complaint with any authority againstany guru.

Aishwarya is also tired of her being sold and bought. She wants to get rid of this trap but finds her helpless. She says her guru is demanding Rs1.2m rupees to set her free and she has no money. She wants to live a life of honour and cries remembering her sisters and brothers but she can’t do much about it as return to her earlier family life is impossible.

Nasheeli also regrets making the mistake of running away from her home.

“Today I realise that whatever I am doing is wrong but I cannot get out of this circle and slavery.”

Nasheeli says the transpersons in groups cannot do anything without the guru’s permission, even going to the market and talking on mobile phones are also prohibited.

Officials version

Narowal District Police Officer Rana Tahirur Rehman says there has been no FIR against the sale and purchase of eunuchs in the district at least in the last three years.

Silakot DPO Muhammad Hassan Iqbal also denies the sale and purchase of transpersons, saying at least there is no complaint. He says strict action would be taken as per law if a complaint of blackmail and trade of transpersons is received. He claims that protection centres had been established across Punjab to provide protection to oppressed transgender persons.

Ali Raza District Officer Social Welfare bemoans that there are no shelter homes for transpersons in Punjab and stresses a need for such homes for them.

Narowal Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf condemns the trade of transpersons. He says the district administration is starting a comprehensive plan for education and technical training of transgender persons after which they would be able to get employment and lead a dignified life.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2023