When NGO workers visited the Rohingya camps in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar after the 2017 mass exodus, they found that the gender-diverse population or the transgender people and their family members were scared of being targeted and harassed within the community every day.
The mistreatment made it a tough task for the aid workers to find most of them from among the hundreds of thousands of conservative Muslim Rohingyas. They took refuge in the shabby huts of Cox's Bazar after fleeing mass violence in the bordering Rakhine state of Myanmar -- a Buddhist-majority country run by a military junta.
Soon, local and international development organizations learned about the horrors faced by the Rohingya trans people, who are called the third gender or hijra in Bangladesh.
They are widely stigmatized and represented inaccurately, stereotypically and negatively without a clear understanding of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE). Netizens as well as mainstream media often highlight the negative aspects of transgender people, making them more vulnerable.
The Rohingya hijras – mainly trans women – have reported regular incidents of torture and humiliation in the camps, even during the days of crisis for food and shelter. They stated that they get support only from their mothers, according to local NGOs working with this marginalized community in three dozen camps of Cox's Bazar, including Kutupalong and Leda.
But the situation has started to improve, thanks to initiatives by development organizations.
At the NGO offices, trans people are offered health and needs-based services that may help them lead a quality life with dignity, human rights, and social justice.
These NGO initiatives are aimed at working to revert the increased social exclusion, marginalization and self-stigmatization of the hijra population in the refugee camps.
Friends of the trans people
The trans women can now go outside the camps in the daytime to seek healthcare and other services from the support centres set up by local NGOs, said officials of Bandhu Social Welfare Society (Bandhu).
They sometimes attend weddings taking place near the camps with the help of the trans people from the host communities in Teknaf, Ukhiya and Cox's Bazar Sadar areas. Together they dance, laugh, and dream big -- though for a short time before returning to the camps.
Bandhu started working in Cox's Bazar in 2018 with support from USAID and is currently working in Cox's Bazar with funding support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
According to Bandhu, it has reached over 300 trans women living in Ukhiya camps and around 230 in Teknaf. Most of them are trans women.
The situation is exacerbated by the low literacy rate among the Rohingyas, as well as the prevalence of violence and discrimination against women. Thus, it is also risky for service providers to visit hijra community people in the camps, several NGO officials said.
Tales of horror
The hijra people – mainly trans women – are subjected to verbal abuse or bullying by people of all ages in the community when they go to shops to buy anything or even just walk to another house in the daylight because of their long hair, make-up, dress, and tone.
Physical assaults and rapes occur in the camps at night, mainly by influential people engaged in crime and violence, said NGO officials. Some of them were banished from the camps.
These acts of violence are perpetrated while clerics and madrasa teachers issue fatwas against the trans population to give the community a message that the gender-diverse population cannot be what they are; they cannot keep long hair, cannot dress like women, and cannot sing or dance.
Despite many measures taken at the camps, the trans people are still not allowed to study at schools and madrasas, and are barred from attending social gatherings and prayers at mosques inside the camps. When they die, their family members bury the corpse in secrecy.
On the other hand, trans men are relatively safer as they do not come out of their houses very often, and their family members and neighbors are more sympathetic towards them than trans women.
NGO officials observe that misrepresentation and negative portrayal of gender diversity issues in the media are to be blamed for perpetuating and legitimizing the prevalent prejudices, stigma and discrimination against the trans people in Bangladesh as well as in the Rohingya camps.
They call for concerted efforts to create a congenial atmosphere for the gender-diverse population in line with human rights.
