Bangladesh: Human rights activists outraged at arrests of trans women for begging
The Bangladeshi human rights organization JusticeMakers Bangladesh has expressed its grave concern about the arrest of four transgender women on charges of extortion and rioting at a wedding ceremony in Dhaka on 17 January 2023.
JusticeMakers Bangladesh has also urged the concerned authority to immediately release the arrested women and drop the charges brought against them.
“Receiving money by begging from the wedding ceremony is a common source of livelihood of transgender in Bangladesh,” says Shahanur Islam, founder and secretary-general of JusticeMakers Bangladesh. “For that aforesaid allegation, arresting transgender people, lodging a case in charge of extortion and sending them to jail is clearly a violation of human rights.”
According to a report from the news website Ajker Patrika dated 18 January 2023, Mirpur Model Police Station of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested four hijras (the local term for transgender women) on charges of extortion and rioting in a wedding house in the afternoon of Jan. 17..
Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Mohsin said that the hijras allegedly went to that house around noon after getting information that a wedding ceremony was going on and they demanded 20,000 Bangladeshi taka (approximately U.S. $190).
When the residents of the house refused to pay the demanded money, the hijras allegedly started shouting until they were given 1,500 taka (approximately $14). But after receiving this money, the hijras allegedly started shouting more, making various obscene gestures, and banging and kicking the door. At one stage, the hijras allegedly blocked them by closing the house from the outside.
Police arrested the transgender women and confiscated 1,500 taka from them. Later, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court of Dhaka sent them to jail.
Islam says arresting transgender women for begging is not an isolated incident, but rather a common phenomenon across Bangladesh. It is only a small part of the ongoing human rights violations like discrimination, humiliation, injury, and targeted killings that the LGBT community routinely faces.
The case bears a strong resemblance to another case involving the arrest of four transgender women on charges of extortion in August 2022. The four hijras were accused of rioting and extorting money from two families that had both recently welcomed the birth of a child, and were arrested by Dhaka Police.
Finally, on 9 January 2023, Metropolitan Magistrate Devdas Chandra Adhikari acquitted all four women due to lack of evidence that an offense was committed. After the acquittal, the magistrate also presented a blanket to each of the transgenders.
“Those gestures of kindness and compassion are a welcome reminder of the importance of treating all individuals with empathy and humanity,” Islam says of the magistrate’s gift.
Islam called on the authorities to take steps to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation, be treated with respect and dignity. Furthermore, JusticeMakers Bangladesh demanded that the transgender individuals who were arbitrarily arrested and detained be provided with appropriate compensation for the harm that has been inflicted upon them.
“It is essential that they will receive support and redress for the injustices they have suffered,” Islam says.
The Bangladesh government has taken some steps toward promoting tolerance of hijras by recognizing them as a third gender.
However, Islam says that hijras are still sometimes forced into various criminal activities such as extortion, drug trade, and smuggling due to discrimination that makes it difficult to find stable employment. Social and family discrimination also impacts their mental health, Islam says.
Islam calls on the government to give full recognition to the LGBT community immediately, including by repealing Section 377 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes same-sex intimacy, and by enacting a law to protect members of the LGBT community.
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