Social Struggle of being HIJRA in Bangladesh

Among all marginalized and violated minority groups in Bangladesh, the hijra is one of the most deprived group. Recently they have gained legal recognition as a third official gender with the change in legislation. Now the hijra people are accepted as a separate gender in all formal and official documents within the nation. In the Bangladeshi society, there have been major changes in the conceptions and role of hijras.

This paper introduces the historical and cultural context of hijra in Bangladesh. The main aim of this paper is to understand the difficulties of hijras. In our country media is used as a communication tool. However, hijras have very little visibility and inadequate demonstration of their rights advocacy in the media. This paper explores how the media demonstrates the hijra movement’s struggle before, and after the legislative change. The main purpose was to rise the understanding of the demonstration and reflectiveness of the hijra rights movement. Also it tries to figure out the situation of hijra in the public province of media. In order to analyze these issues, cultural context and social constructivism constitute are very important factors. Here, media represents hijras with a lens for the audience of norms changing discussions and a progressive attitude. The hijra community and the hijra rights movement have been- and still are paying with their patience in the hope for a better tomorrow.

Reference:

Stenqvist, T. (2015). The social struggle of being HIJRA in Bangladesh-cultural aspiration between inclusion and illegitimacy.

https://dspace.mah.se/bitstream/handle/2043/18568/Stenqvist-T-DP15%20final.pdf;sequence=2