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| Issue 3, 2008 |
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| Issue 4, 2007 |
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| Issue 4, 2006 |
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Issue 3, 2008
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Issue in Focus
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The World of Zenanas
‘If it is a male child, go and
announce it to one and all
and take something sweet
with you because a boy has
come into this world. If it is
a female child, there is no
need of any joy, go back to
your work; I will take care
of her. And if it is a zenana,
go throw it in the river near
by, it is better for it to drown
than to live a life of misery
and misfortune.’
Tahir Khilji
This statement was made by an aqua zenana. It is for the
first time in my work of almost 13 years that I am meeting
an aqua zenana. In the zenana world, there are three kinds
of zenanas, one is acqua, who is born without male genitalia,
then there is chibbri, who goes through corrective surgery
to get the genitalia of her/his desire and finally there is
a zenana who is neither aqua or chibbri but a male who
describes himself as a female living in a male body.
In its literal sense, in Urdu1
language, zenana is a term
meaning ‘female’ that is still used to distinguish male spaces
from female spaces or male characteristics from female
characteristics. Thus, it is a way of identification of spaces
such as these are the zenana quarters and those are mardana
(male) quarters. This word is used mostly in a derogatory
sense to identify a male with feminine characteristics. In
other words, if some one wants to highlight the ‘effeminate’
behaviour in any male, this word would be used by observers
with a certain level of contempt towards that person and
the behaviour.
Every June I accompany some of my zenana team members
to a shrine close to a hill resort in the foothills of the
Himalayas. We do this every June as it is the time of the
annual festival at the shrine. We spend close to four days
at the shrine. It is that time of the year when we share
everything, starting from living spaces to recreational
spaces. This may be the only time each year that I get to
see the very core of the zenana world.
On the surface, it is all about jealousies and manipulations
but scratch the surface and there is compassion, affection,
unity, innocence and the spirit to struggle. The four days
are a mixture of lots of fun and frolic along with plenty of
violence, gang rapes, humiliation and harassment both from
the ‘other devotees’ and the law enforcement agencies.
Let us first talk about the fun and frolic. One zenana ritual
that has become part of this larger ritual of our four days is
the induction of new zenanas and this is how it happens:
Upon our arrival, there is the evening of sending out the
invitations. It is called illaichi phirana2. Whoever goes out
with the invitation tells the other zenanas that on a certain
evening there will be the induction of a new zenana in the
household of a specific guru3.Some of the gurus from our
own team generally have one or two new inductees each
year at the shrine (this is apart from those inductees that
they bring in the rest of the year). The inductees who are
brought into a zenana household during this sacred period
are revered4.
On the day of the induction there is a lot of activity. Food is
prepared for the guests, with an emphasis on sweet things,
as distributing anything sweet is considered appropriate for
any joyous occasion.
When the time of induction comes, a little role play is
done in front of everyone. It is the same role play each
year and each year it pains me with same intensity. The
role play goes thus: There is an expectant mother who is
screaming because of labour pains. Her female friends are
consoling her that soon it will be over. A midwife comes
in and announces that it is close to the delivery time. The
screams get louder; her legs move apart, and suddenly a
little bundle (of cloth) that is considered to be the child
comes out; sounds of an infant crying are mimicked by one
of the actors. The mother, before anyone else says anything,
utters these words, ‘If it is a male child go and announce it
to one and all and take something sweet with you because
a boy has come into this world. If it is a female child, there
is no need of any joy, go back to your work; I will take care
of her. And if it is a zenana, go throw it in the river near by,
it is better for it to drown than to live a life of misery and
misfortune.’
It hurts because it reflects the reality of my society and my
role as that of someone who just views it from outside.
We move on to a more cheerful part of the ritual and that
is when a young, coy and blushing zenana (a 10 to 12 year
old boy) is brought into the room, escorted by some older
zenanas. The child is made to sit on a little cushion and a
dupatta (a stole), embroidered with gold and silver thread,
is held over the child’s head. The dupatta is held by its four
corners by four accomplished zenanas, who have their own
households now. Along with this there is lots of singing and
dancing. The guru who is taking the child into his
5household gets up and feeds the child with some sweet that is already
set on a platter. This is the induction of the child into the
zenana household6.
The child is now part of the household that has accepted
him. If another guru wants to take the child then he has
to pay the entire amount that the previous guru may have
spent or pay for bringing the child under his wings. Thus,
if the child wants to leave the household and move to
another household, he has to have the next guru come up
with the asking amount that has been put on the child. If
the child runs away and another guru takes him in without
paying the previous one, then the senior gurus get together
to decide the fate of the child and the guru who took him
in. Normally the fate is ostracisation7 from the community
for a certain period till a penalty8
is paid. Generally, gurus
abide by the code of the community.
It is interesting that though the inductee may have become
part of the household only on that day, he seems to be
quite well-versed in the zenana code of conduct. It never
ceases to amaze me how this child knows exactly how to
conduct himself in presence of the gurus and other zenanas.
In addition to this the child knows the Farsi language9
and is able to go on and on in it with his zenana friends.
The fate of this child is sealed. He will be gang raped,
he will be harassed, he will be violated in every sense of
the word but he will still not want to leave this one space
because this is the space that provides him freedom to be
what he wants to be.
This feast is no feast for me and this fun is no fun for me.
I try to find someone to put the blame upon but I do not
find anyone. I know that if I suggest to the devotees (as
an experiment) that we create a space for these children
where they can be themselves for may be two hours in a
day and then they can go back to the safety (or the lack of
it) of their homes, they will not listen.
Therefore, I sit back and tell myself that I am doing my
bit, may be a day will dawn when this very community
will provide such spaces to children who feel differently
without charging them this heavy a price. This community
has a lot of empathy. They know exactly how it feels to
be ‘that one child’ and they know all the sufferings and
longings of ‘that one child’, and therefore they are the
best ones to facilitate him through his difficult journey
unharmed and unscratched. I assure them that my support
will always be with them.
- Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. Urdu is a mixture
of several other languages such as Persian, Sanskrit and
Arabic.
- Illaichi is cardamom, phirana means circulate. This again
is a Urdu phrase that can be easily translated into Punjabi
without changing the wordings or meanings.
- The guru is the head of a zenana household.
- Any such festival called urs (yearly celebration of a Sufi saint
buried at the shrine) is sacred for most people across the
board, therefore any such occasion, does not have to be at a
specific shrine or associated with a certain Sufi saint for the
reverence of the zenanas.
- The gurus who are married to women play a masculine
role in public as do the zenanas. It is only in the space of
the zenana household that they refer to themselves in the
feminine. Language is tricky here, and for this article, the
editorial decision is to use the gender term they prefer to
use for themselves in public.
- There has not been any anthropological work done with
zenanas in Pakistan to the best of my knowledge. This is an
analysis of case studies that Vision has collected over the
years. The child breaking away from his biological family
and finding solace at a zenana household is a strong pattern that emerges in almost all the case studies.
Tahir Khilji works with vision, a non proft organization
based in Lahore, Pakistan. vision and Tahir, specifcally, works
in partnership with religious minorities living in Pakistan and
with sexually marginalised and stigmatised communities
such as zenanas (men who identify themselves as women).
The partnerships emphasise community building in these
groups and populations and evolve safe spaces for these
communities and groups to exist. vision is one of the few
organisations in Pakistan that works at the policy level to
protect the rights of these marginalised groups.
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