• Director(s):

    LE GOUIL (Gwenlaouen)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE GEIE, CARGO CULTE PRODUCTIONS

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2013

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    TV, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET

In Pakistan, the eunuch revolution is underway. For the first time since the country was created in 1947, the existence of the 800,000 "hijras" - veritable scapegoats in the country’s conservative society - is being officially recognized.

These men who have chosen, or not as the case may be, to live in women’s bodies - transvestites, transsexuals and hermaphrodites - can now obtain a “3rd gender” ID card. A sort of “authorization to live” that allows them to vote, own property, open bank accounts or quite simply to get a job, so they can finally turn their backs on the streets and prostitution.
But a paper document does not change mentalities. On a daily basis, the hijras are the object of scorn of the 180 million Pakistanis, and are regularly beaten, raped and tortured.
Hated by the majority of the religious, they have to fight for survival.
Some of them agreed to let us into their communities, revealing to us a hidden world, with its own customs, codes and laws, a taboo universe that reflects the country’s macho and conservative society in which women are still victims of crimes of honour.
From Karachi, a sprawling city with a population of 18 million, to Islamabad, the capital, the ARTE Reportage team followed the struggle of these hijras, on their long and difficult fight for their rights, and their quest for a certain normality.