Transgender hijra community opens its first mosque in Bangladesh
‘Now we can pray in a mosque, now we will be buried like other people.’
Author Mohammad Mazed tells the story of the mosque for Agence France-Presse:
Transgender hijra people in Bangladesh opened the Muslim-majority country’s first mosque for their community in March, heralding a new era for the group that is much discriminated against.
This mosque, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, welcomes the hijra transgender community and promises them a place to worship without discrimination.
“We can’t express this feeling in words. It’s such a matter of my joy,” said community leader Joyita Tonu.
“Where we never belonged to any mosque or Islamic seminaries, we couldn’t pray anywhere, now we have a mosque of our own in our name. We got a graveyard in our name. Now we can pray in a mosque, now we will be buried like other people,” he said.
But throughout Bangladesh the third-gender people known as hijras still struggle for basic recognition and acceptance. The community lacks marriage and property rights.
“We had a companion, a hijra sister. When she died, her family and relatives were reluctant to conduct her funeral, so we bathed her, dug a grave for her. Suddenly a group of people appeared there and said that she can’t be buried there. Then we had to bury her in a different place. The grave we dug for her at first, we planted a banana tree there instead. And she was buried on the bank of a river. It’s heartbreaking. To whom we will tell this sorrow of ours?” Tonu said.
The new mosque is already tackling prejudice. as exemplified by the visit of a neighbor, Tofazza Hossain, who came to the mosque to pray with the hijra.
“When the hijra started to live with us, many people said many things. But we’ve realized what people say isn’t right,: Hossain said. “[The hijra people] live rightfully, like other Muslims. We also asked our Imam and other Muftis whether we can pray with them. They said that yes, they are Muslims and we can socialize with them.”
The community hopes to expand the mosque.
