Third gender is a concept in which individuals are categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither man nor woman. It is also a social category present in societies that recognize three or more genders. The term third is usually understood to mean “other”, though some anthropologists and sociologists have described fourth and fifth genders.
The state of personally identifying as, or being identified by society as, a man, a woman, or other, is usually also defined by the individual’s gender identity and gender role in the particular culture in which they live.
Most cultures use a gender binary, having two genders (boys/men and girls/women). In cultures with a third or fourth gender, these genders may represent very different things. To Native Hawaiians and Tahitians, Māhū is an intermediate state between man and woman, or a “person of indeterminate gender”. Some traditional Diné Native Americans of the Southwestern US acknowledge a spectrum of four genders: feminine woman, masculine woman, feminine man, and masculine man. The term “third gender” has also been used to describe the hijras of India who have gained legal identity, fa’afafine of Polynesia, and sworn virgins. A culture recognizing a third gender does not in itself mean that they were valued by that culture, and often is the result of explicit devaluation of women in that culture.
While found in a number of non-Western cultures, concepts of “third”, “fourth”, and “some” gender roles are still somewhat new to mainstream western culture and conceptual thought. The concept is most likely to be embraced in the modern LGBT or queer subcultures. While mainstream western scholars—notably anthropologists who have tried to write about the South Asian hijras or the Native American “gender variant” and two-spirit people—have often sought to understand the term “third gender” solely in the language of the modern LGBT community, other scholars—especially Indigenous scholars—stress that mainstream scholars’ lack of cultural understanding and context has led to widespread misrepresentation of third gender people, as well as misrepresentations of the cultures in question, including whether or not this concept actually applies to these cultures at all. Allah Almighty has created three types of genders: male, female and transgender, but people believe in two and ignore the third. We have feelings and emotions for each other but not with the transgender community. We ignore them all the time. Not only that, but people always humiliate them whenever we see them.
This is stereotyping that has been created in our minds. We disrespect them, demoralize them, and insult them. More than 21,774 transgender people are living in Pakistan, but due to having few rights and little respect, most are reduced to illiteracy and begging on the streets. Being an Islamic country we should not ignore their social right to education. Every time a government department announce different jobs in different sectors, you will find that no job will be reserved for this ignored section of society.
SIRAJ AHMED ABBASI
Islamabad
