By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – With a long white shawl on her head, Rani Khan gives daily Quranic lessons in the first madrasa just for transgender people, or an Islamic religious school, which she set up using her savings.
Madrasa is an important milestone for the LGBTQ community in the predominantly Muslim country, where transgender people face ostracism, although there is no official restriction on attending religious schools or praying in mosques.
“Most families do not accept transsexuals. They expel them from home. Transgender people commit crimes,” said Khan, 34, while other transgender people, with their heads equally covered, rocked back and forth, reciting verses from the Koran.
“There was a time when I was also one of them.”
Holding back tears, Khan remembered how she was rejected by her family at age 13 and forced to beg.
At 17, she joined a transgender group, dancing at weddings and other events, but gave up to connect with her religion after a dream in which a transgender friend and fellow dancer pleaded with her to do something for the community.
Khan studied the Koran at home and attended religious schools before opening the two-room madrasa in October.
“I am teaching the Koran to please God, to make my life here and in the next,” said Khan, explaining how the madrasah offered a place for transgender people to worship, learn about Islam and repent of past actions.
She says the school has not received government aid, although some officials have promised to help students find jobs.
Along with some donations, Khan is teaching his students to sew and embroider, hoping to raise funds for the school by selling clothes.
Pakistan’s parliament recognized the third gender in 2018, giving these individuals fundamental rights, such as the ability to vote and choose their gender in official documents.
However, transgender people remain on the margins of the country and often need to resort to begging, dancing and prostitution to make a living.
Madrasa can help trans people to assimilate into society, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat told Reuters.
“I am hopeful that if you replicate this model in other cities, things will get better,” he said.
A religious school for transgender people opened in Dhaka, the capital of neighboring Bangladesh, and last year a transgender Christian group started its own church in the bustling port city of Karachi in southern Pakistan.
The 2017 Pakistan census registered some 10,000 trans people, although human rights groups say the number may now be well over 300,000 in the country of 220 million.
“My heart is at ease when I read the Qur’an,” said a madrassa student, Simran Khan, who is also eager to learn life skills.
“It is much better than a life full of insults,” added the 19-year-old.
(Reporting and writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Gibran Peshimam and Karishma Singh)