Hijra

In south Asian countries including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the Hijra are people who were assigned male at birth and who have a feminine gender expression. This is a very ancient tradition of a nonbinary gender role (often called "third gender"). The Hijra in India alone may number as many as 2,000,000.^[1]

A group of Hijra, circa 1865.

A Pakistani hijra at a protest between two hijra groups from Islamabad and Rawalpindi. 2008.

Legal Recognition

In some countries today, Hijra are legally recognized as a gender other than female or male.

India, November 2009^[2] Owing to the Hijra, India allows passports to use the gender marker "T", meaning transgender or third gender,^[3] as well as "E" (eunuch).^[4] However, this distinction doesn't grant them all civil rights (for example, in order to vote, one needs to identify as either male or female).
Pakistan, December 2009 ^[5]
Bangladesh, November 2013 ^[6] In 2011, Bangladesh started to allow passports to show a gender called "other", owing to the Hijra.^[7]^[4]

Please expand this section.

River of the Gods and Cyberabad Days by Ian McDonald. A novel set in futuristic India in year 2050, with interesting subplots about hijra.

↑ Reddy, Gayatri, With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India, 310 pp., University of Chicago Press, 2005 ISBN 0-226-70755-5 (see p. 8)
↑ Harmeet Shah Singh (12 November 2009). "India's third gender gets own identity in voter rolls". CNN. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
↑ Kellaway, Mitch (9 May 2015). "Trans Indian's Predicament at Border Shows the U.S. Lags Behind". The Advocate. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Hopper, Tristin (9 May 2012). "Genderless passports 'under review' in Canada". National Post. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
↑ Misra, Ria (25 December 2009). "Pakistan Recognizes Third Gender". Politics Daily. Archived from the original on 27 February 2010.
↑ Karim, Mohosinul (11 November 2013). "Hijras now a separate gender". Dhaka Tribune. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013.
↑ Macarow, Aron (9 February 2015). "These Eleven Countries are Way Ahead of the US on Trans Issues". ATTN:. Retrieved 1 October 2020.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)