Coping with Gender Normativity: A Qualitative Study of a Hijra (Third-Gender) Community in Punjab, Pakistan

This study explores how hijras, a traditional third-gender community, cope with gender-normative barriers on a day-to-day basis in Punjab, Pakistan. Using in-depth individual interviews with 50 hijra persons conducted in Lahore and Kasur districts of central Punjab, the authors found that the study participants negotiate gender norms, practices, and spaces on multiple levels, including community-based, interpersonal, and individual levels. In this way, the study participants question the legitimacy of family and marriage institutions that restrict their behavior within existing gender and sexual norms, often at significant personal costs. The study identifies multiple coping strategies, coping resources, and social support systems that are available to hijras if they abide by community rules and obligations; in this gender-normative context, further possibilities for coalitions with other gender and sexual minorities in Pakistan are also discussed.