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The section titled, Made in Pakistan, featured three short films, including Amina Malik’s Katchi, on Day 1 and each one of them pushed the audience to reflect on transgenders’ position in society.
#transcommunity #Instep
Derided and humiliated at every opportunity, transgenders are not fully accepted by our society till date. Attitudes toward transgender people range from confused to hostile, and although gender inclusion is one of the hottest debates of our time, the trans community is easily overlooked as part of the bracket.
In 2012, transgender people faced a turning point in Pakistan when the Supreme Court recognized the ‘third gender’ and entitled them to all the fundamental rights enjoyed by any other citizen of the country. However, as the game changer in the voice of law for a developing country, it is guaranteed only on paper. This bias is close to the heart of Ali Saleem, the cross-dressing trend in the entertainment world and talk show host, who feels that more needs to be done for the trans community.
“They still have no political representation. While all provincial assemblies in Pakistan have reserved seats for women, unfortunately there are no seats or quotas reserved for transgenders by the government and/or beyond,” Saleem said. said while speaking on Instep. Neglected state of trans community in Pakistan. “You have schools and colleges for both men and women but you don’t have any for transgenders. It would not be out of place to say that they are number one on the list of helpless people in this country. They need protection. They are unemployed, forced into prostitution and disrespected by any law, and ironically, they are part of our culture, our religion, and our history Also ignored as if they were just yesterday Mutants are born.”
This battle for recognition also extends to cinema – a medium otherwise celebrated for its liberalism. According to Forbes, only 0.4 percent of all on-screen Hollywood characters are portrayed as queer, and most are portrayed by cisgender actors rather than transgender, even though they make up 3.5 percent of the total American population. Identify as gay, bisexual and transgender. With nearly 500,000 members in the community, such media neglect is felt keenly by transgender people in Pakistan. Further inflaming the emotions are the stereotypical portrayals of transgenders among the characters present. Transgender people are either sympathized with as if they were suffering from some sort of biological disease or dismissed as a mere source of comedy. All this and more was brought to life at the AKS Film Festival, held recently at T2F in Karachi.
Organized by indie filmmakers and creative directors of AKS Saadat, Kami, Neeli Rana and Jannat Ali, the AKS Film Festival was launched in 2012 as a non-profit movement to empower marginalized groups, especially Transgender exposure can be promoted. A dialogue to empower them.
“I started working with the trans community in Pakistan in 2011. I was making a film on them, called Choopan Choopai (Hide and Seek), which was not meant to be informative but on legal issues. They had to face it and it was shown in festivals in 70 countries and we invited our lead character Neely Rana to the premiere. It was the first time he traveled outside Pakistan and people all over the place Ask questions So she was so happy that she suggested that there should be a similar platform back home,” says Saadat about the journey that led to the formation of AKS. “We organized the first edition of the film festival with the help of our friends in Lahore and Islamabad. The second edition was organized in Copenhagen in 2015 with a special focus on the Pakistani trans community. It spanned seven days and was quite It was our third edition and the first in Karachi in terms of encouraging a lot of discussion on this topic and it was interesting to see the positive response from people not from the trans community.”
The four-day festival in Karachi featured a series of shorts and features from Pakistan and around the world, followed by discussions with some of the filmmakers. Jameel Dehlavi’s controversial 1988 film Immaculate Conception was also screened to a packed house of indie film fans and members of the trans community, but was heavily criticized by transgender audience members for its stereotypical portrayal. One participating princess specifically pointed to the fascinating and challenging avatars the film portrayed her in and how the filmmakers needed to reduce the negative stereotypes associated with transgender people and instead use positive ones. was shown in light. Dehlavi acknowledged the concerns and welcomed the criticism.
On the other hand, the shorts portray the harsh reality of being a transgender in Pakistan and the mind-numbing dilemmas of growing up to create awareness and remove the stigma attached to the ‘third gender’. is Amina Malik’s Kutch and Saqib Nouman’s As I Remember were particularly compelling in their depictions of child abuse, transphobia and sexism. He created a brutal yet honest portrait of transgenders’ struggle with moral and physical acceptance. In fact, Kachi is based on real-life events experienced by a Pakistani transgender guru. On the international front, Karachiites got a taste of Sean Baker’s critically acclaimed Tangerine – a brave, unflinching take on the lives of two fiercely independent and strong trans women trying to survive and make ends meet. It’s a comedy.
Over the course of four days, it was interesting to see transgender people shed their cloak of invisibility, let go of their fears and take control of their narratives to give Pakistanis a much-needed reality check. We are often too quick to demonize transgender people but it is actually our heteronormative world that is less innocent than it is supposed to be. However, what is more important is not to merely realize the injustices but to stop wasting ink and paper in articulating them and instead make a collective effort to give these people the same importance as any other gender. .
Geo’s upcoming fantasy series Moor Mahal has taken a small but not insignificant step in this direction. Not only did Ali Saleem play the role of an influential and decisive firebrand in this period epic, but around 40 to 50 eunuchs were included in the cast. “Around 40 to 50 people from the trans community were employed for about 8 months and given a chance to earn decent money. They were given the same respect that any other artist deserves and this is definitely a remarkable contribution. If The Moor becomes a palace. The success of a run will probably be due to the prayers and good feelings of those people,” Saleem said.
With power, politics and romance at the center of its story, Moor Mahal could easily have strayed from an idealized standard gender expression. But by acknowledging the presence of transgender people in our culture and creating a creative space for transgender people, the Moore Mahal team is definitely on the way to breaking the binary. That said, it remains to be seen whether Sarmad Khost’s direction abandons stereotypes and casts them in a positive light as it is time to break away from an authoritarian prison of reality and what is natural. .
