"I was shocked! This society, my family – no one gave me shelter. No one!” Kotha’s words shook the auditorium of the National Museum, drawing huge sympathy from a room full of audience, dominated by the hijra community.
Kotha spoke these moving lines during her performance in the grand finale of the three-day-long Hijra Pride 2014 that ended yesterday.
Joya Sikder, president at Sex Workers’ Network of Bangladesh said around 1,000 hijras had participated in the programme, which featured a henna festival, talent hunt competition, a rally and a consultation session.
The grand finale of the talent hunt competition and a cultural programme marked the end of the festival. The festival was organised to mark the anniversary of the official recognition of hijras as a third gender in Bangladesh.
A cabinet meeting on November 11 last year decided that hijras were to be considered a separate gender in Bangladesh and would be given priority for education and other rights.
The performances at the programme included dance, singing, poetry recitation and acting. Performer Diana won the first prize for her dance performance, Ononya won the second prize for her dance performance, and Mostafa came third for his singing. Diana and Ononya are from Dhaka, and Mostafa is from Rajshahi. The performers came from many different cities including Rangpur and Khulna.
Although most of the audience included people from the hijra community, many cultural personalities were present as well. The judges of the talent hunt competition were dance artist and cultural activist Shibly Mohammed, dance artist and human rights activist Anisul Islam Hero, and model and actress Sadia Islam Mou.
AKM Mahbubul Islam, a deputy programme manager at Bondhu, a support network, brought his whole family to the show, including his 4-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son.
“They often get scared seeing hijras on the streets, and we brought them here to break that impression,” said Mahbubul’s sister Jakirun.
The celebration has set a good precedent for the hijra community that awaits a bill to be passed in the parliament that recognises the Hijra community. “Of course there has been a lot of improvements since the declaration of the separate gender,” said Poonam, a hijra who was here to attend the show.
“Now, at least we know there will be response when we raise our voice.”
“But we just need the bill to pass in the parliament, which has not happened since the recognition last year,” said Joya Sikder.
