By Fazal Khaliq
MINGORA: “My family forced me out of my home, saying, I am causing stigma to their hard earned good fame. They asked me either to live normal life or leave them forever,” tear rolled down her cheeks and she cried.
This was Maxy, a young transvestite who shifted to Swat from Lahore and refused to return to normal life as becoming and looking female was something in her genes.
According to Maxy, it was not only her family but outside her family she faced abuse and harassment by member of communities as well. “We have become sandwiched as neither the outside communities nor the family members accept us on whatever we have chosen for us,” she said.
She said she loved wearing ladies dress and doing makeups, and wanted to completely adopt transgender profession. “But my parents did not allow me and suggested to carry on my studies. However, with the passage of time I become more and more eager towards transvestitism,” she said, adding her parents and brothers asked her to leave their home.
“I left my childhood home with heavy heart and shifted Swat four years ago. Where I joined the transgender community and started dancing in wedding ceremonies and other functions,” she said.
She said she missed her family and sometimes talked with her mother. “My mother always asks me to return home but I how can I leave all this without which I can never live and if I go back then my brothers will not accept me once again start beating me,” she said in gloomy tone.
She said she was content in Swat as she lived with her own community where she can wear her choice’s dress and can dance with other friends. “I can earn not handsome amount by dancing in functions but I am happy that I can buy my dresses, food and rent a room with it,” she said.
Being educated Maxy is aware of computer technology and uses social media regularly. “We are limited to the late evening functions and then our rooms. Other than this we have no social life but thanks to facebook as we can see and meet friends there and share our feelings with them,” she said.
However, her life is not completely comfortable as people living in her neighborhood, often, trouble her and her community by threatening them to vacate the building. “Now and then, people of the surrounding areas come to our building and ask us to vacate the building as we are spreading pornography,” she said, adding their daily use items were sometimes broken and thrown away.
She said the government must protect them as other citizens. “We are human beings and must be accepted in the society. The government should offer us jobs and protect us when people abuse us or beat us,” she asked, adding that in old age the transgender cannot dance and cannot earn one time food. “The government must help them by providing food and shelter in the old age so that they do not beg but live peacefully,” she appealed to the government.
