Your car stops at a red light, you look out of the window and a friendly face greets you with a prayer. You give her some change, and she smiles wide, donning a bright lipstick, as you drive away.

But have you ever taken a moment to imagine what lies beneath the layers of foundation, kohl and blush-on?

Our knowledge of transgenders is limited — especially in Pakistan — to what we see on the streets. However, Karachi-based photographer Henna Qaisar took it upon herself to dig deeper and through the stories she tells, it is obvious that there is more sorrow than joy behind that bright smile.

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Bullying, taunts and abuse are unfortunately a way of life for them; who want nothing more than to receive an education, and work for a living.

Their livelihood depends on the act they put on while on the streets says Henna Qaisar, who decided to visit a group of transgenders in their home to learn more about their lives.

“What I loved the most about them is their sense of humour. They pick on each other a lot. They’re all pretty regular, not the way you see them on the roads. It’s all an act,” Henna told The Express Tribune.

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

“I was taking pictures of this one woman while she posed for me. When this couple walked past her, she went into character and started clapping,” she added.

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PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

During their meeting, Henna was welcomed into their home, as they discussed the struggles of living as a transgender.

“This is Allah’s decision. We can’t change. We were born this way,” said one.

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

“When we get beaten up, we go into depression. When we go to learn how to work, they say ‘larki, larki, larki,'” she added while mimicking the claps of strangers.

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

“If people didn’t make fun of us and create obstacles, we’d be able to stand tall. We would’ve learnt skills for work; we would have been educated,” she continued.

When asked if they would quit begging if the government helped and provided them with jobs, one responded, “We’d quit begging. We’re living in a rented house. Our landlord doesn’t wait a day for the rent. We have to eat and clothe ourselves. Our parents are old, we have to take care of them as well.”

“I loved sewing, I wanted to learn how to sew, wanted to take a bag and go to school, but people don’t let you live. They said ‘larki, larki, larki, larki. We feel ashamed. We wonder what we are, and why they’re saying these things to us. We wouldn’t go out due to the shame, we would just hide indoors,” she said.

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

“Living together as a family, these transgenders look out for one another’s needs and help each other in whichever way possible,” Henna tells us.

They even helped pay for one transgender’s law school tuition.

“A perfect example of their familial bond is when they all contributed some money to pay for the tuition and text books of a member of the group, who is currently studying in law school,” revealed Henna.

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

“She was beaten up by her brothers and father on a regular basis, while her mother and sisters tried their best to protect her. When her sisters finally got married and moved out, her brothers kicked her out.”

Her determination however, is commendable.

“She then went to school, but was taunted so much that she quit, and pursued her studies privately. Now she’s studying law, and her newfound family is helping her,” said Henna.

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Here are some more photos, providing insight into their lives:

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

PHOTO: HENNA QAISAR

KARACHI: The draft of the second edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is expected to be held in Dubai this year rather than Lahore because the national side will be in the Gulf state, hosting West Indies, during that time.

The inaugural edition of the players’ draft was held in Lahore at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) but the management of the T20 league decided that since the players will be in Dubai, holding the event in Lahore would pose logistical problems.

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“All the national players will be in UAE in October and we want their participation in the draft thus it has been decided to host it in Dubai this time around,” a PSL official told The Express Tribune.

“We’ll also invite the West Indies players to grace the occasion. We want to make it [the draft] bigger this time around and hosing it in Pakistan without the players would mean nothing.”

While the proposal makes sense, it has divided opinions as many feel it should have been staged in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the transfer and retention windows are already open for franchises to make any alterations to their squad, which includes retaining core players for the second edition.

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This year’s PSL will see Lahore Qalandars, who finished last in the inaugural edition, have the right to make the first 20 picks followed by Karachi Kings, Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators, while defending champions Islamabad United will be the last ones to make their picks.

It has been learnt that superstars such as Brendon McCullum and Mitchell Johnson are expected to be part of the second edition of the PSL, while PSL Player Recruitment Head, Faisal Mirza, is looking to bring in more big names. The PSL Governing Council has also decided to increase the salaries of players by to 10 per cent in all categories.

GENEVA: A Muslim father was fined in Switzerland Wednesday for refusing to allow his daughters to take swimming lessons at school, in the latest case exposing the challenges of integration in the Alpine country.

The unnamed 40-year-old man was ordered to pay 4,000 Swiss francs ($4,000, 3,700 euros), the ATS news agency said in a report.

He had also refused to allow his daughters to go to camps and other school events, insisting they ran counter to his religious beliefs.

Outrage as Muslim pupils exempt from shaking female teachers’ hands in Swiss district

The Altstaetten district court in the northeastern Swiss canton of St. Gallen found the father guilty of among other things violating the law on obligatory schooling and of disobeying previous orders by the authorities, ATS reported

The court reached its verdict after the father appealed a previous ruling faulting him last December.

The prosecutor had requested that the man be sentenced to four months behind bars, in addition to a fine, maintaining that the Bosnian national who has been living in Switzerland since 1990 had resisted integration and had no respect for Swiss legislation.

The family has reportedly been in conflict with the local authorities for years.

Last year, the parents were sentenced by a lower court for refusing to allow their daughters go to school unless they were permitted to wear ahijab.

But the country’s highest court overturned that verdict, ruling that the eldest girl should be allowed to wear the veil to school in the name of freedom of religion.

Wednesday’s ruling came after a high-profile case involving Muslim pupils refusing to shake hands with their female teachers caused uproar across Switzerland.

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Last month, the norther Swiss canton of Basel country reversed one middle school’s controversial decision to grant exemptions for two Muslim pupils unwilling to shake hands with teachers of the opposite sex, and threated hefty fines for those who refused to toe the line.

 

BALASORE: India on Thursday test fired a new surface-to-air ballistic missile jointly developed with Israel from a defence base off the Odisha cost, Times of India reported.

Barak-8, a medium range missile (MR-SAM), was fired from a mobile launcher in Chandipur's Integrated Test Range (ITR), a Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) official said.

YOGYAKARTA: Courtiers in elaborate outfits danced to the gentle tinkling of Javanese music as the Sultan of Yogyakarta looked on, a scene that has played out in much the same way for centuries in the tiny Indonesian kingdom.

But the recent ceremony to mark the 70th birthday of Hamengku Buwono X, Indonesia’s last sultan with real political power, had one key difference from previous celebrations — many of his relatives refused to attend.

A bitter feud has erupted at the heart of the kingdom on Java island, after the Muslim ruler signalled he wants his eldest daughter to become the sultanate’s first female monarch after he leaves the throne.

Indonesia is home to numerous small kingdoms. But while other provinces now elect political rulers and their sultans are largely ceremonial figures, Yogyakarta’s sultan serves as both royal leader and governor of the city and its surrounding areas.

Jakarta allowed the Yogyakarta royal family to keep power as the central government was grateful for the sultanate’s support for independence in 1945 after a long period of Dutch colonial rule.

The sultan still maintains many of the trappings of Javanese royal rule in the kingdom, which has a history stretching back to the 16th century.

His main residence is a traditional Javanese palace complex, known as a Kraton, and important events are celebrated with much pomp and circumstance.

But the sultan’s push to make the eldest of his five daughters — he has no sons — the first female monarch of Yogyakarta has transformed him into an unlikely champion for gender equality, and threatens to overturn hundreds of years of tradition in the Muslim, conservative sultanate.

Rooster or hen?

It has sparked a furious row with his family, who say he is breaking rules laid down to govern the sultanate, amid speculation that his brothers were jockeying to fill his position.

“A female sultan is an impossibility,” said the sultan’s cousin, Kanjeng Raden Tumenggung Jatiningrat.

“One symbol in this palace is a rooster — so if we have a queen should we change it to a hen?” The rooster is a symbol of bravery.

He added that a female ruler could not oversee rituals in the mosque or other ceremonies that have traditionally been led by men.

Hamengku Buwono, who has been on the throne 27 years, last year set in motion the process for his daughter to become monarch by giving her the title “Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Mangkubumi”.

Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Pembayun whom Hamengku Buwono X, Yogyakarta’s last sultan, wants to become the sultanate’s first female monarch after he leaves the throne.

While he has not confirmed publicly that she is the crown princess, in Javanese culture — where much is conveyed through symbolism rather than anything said out loud — the signs are clear.

The title Mangkubumi, which translates from Indonesian as “the one who holds the Earth”, was the same one given to the sultan when he was made crown prince several decades ago.

She was also entrusted with the task of “attempting to bring safety, happiness and prosperity to the world”, another indication she would succeed her father.

And the sultan made small changes to his own lengthy royal title — removing a word normally only used by men and tweaking another — to make it gender-neutral, opening the door for a woman to take over.

‘An Islamic kingdom’

The sultan has defended the move, saying there is nothing stopping him from making changes in his kingdom and he has to adapt as Indonesia modernises.

“The Yogyakarta palace doesn’t have a hereditary tradition that can’t be changed, and all ruling sultans can introduce changes,” he told local media.

Still, many disagree with him, from his relatives to local Muslim groups.

“The king should maintain the tradition as it was originally, because this is an Islamic kingdom,” said Abdur Rahman from the local hard-line group Islamic Jihad Front.

But it is not the first time there has been a female monarch in diverse Indonesia — nowadays Muslim-majority, but which has had Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms over the centuries and is home to about 300 different ethnic groups.

Queens at times ruled over the ancient Majapahit empire, which covered large parts of what is now Indonesia from the late 13th to the early 16th centuries, as they did in Aceh, on western Sumatra island, when it was an independent sultanate.

And the sultan’s approximately four million subjects in Yogyakarta and the surrounding area, who view him as a demigod, have had only a muted a reaction, with most preferring to keep out of royal affairs.

Nevertheless the row looks unlikely to be resolved any time soon, and it cast a long shadow over the recent celebration, which marked the anniversary of the sultan’s coronation as well as his birthday.

The solemn melodies from the “gamelans” — a traditional Indonesian instrumental ensemble, made up of bronze percussion instruments — were a million miles from the seething tensions swirling around the royal succession.

“About 90 per cent of the family don’t respect him anymore,” raged Gusti Bendoro Pangeran Haryo Prabukusumo, a stepbrother of the ruler who snubbed the event.—AFP

THE Brexit shock is causing a fundamental realignment in British politics. The Scottish National Party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, is trying to achieve both Scottish independence and continued membership of the European Union. And it’s a sign of the times that the Scottish dimension of the current political crisis is something of a sideshow to what’s happening in London.

Events are still highly fluid but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Brexit voters fell into two broad camps: those who wanted to reduce immigration and those who dislike the UK having to accept laws made in Brussels. Those worried about immigration are effectively represented by Nigel Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Those who want to resist the power of Brussels are led by the Conservative Party’s Boris Johnson.

Boris Johnson — and one of his most articulate supporters Daniel Hannan — have both said they do not interpret the result as a vote against immigration. But with countless TV interviews showing Brexit voters saying that for them it was about immigration, it’s a difficult line to sustain.

But Johnson has little choice. Many in his Conservative Party, which has close links with big business and the city of London, are fearful of the damage Brexit could do to the economy. For the bulk of the business community it’s now a case of damage limitation: while the UK will have to leave the European Union they hope it may still be possible to retain access to the single European market. The difficulty is that the European Union is insisting that continued single market access depends on continued free movement of labour. Having said that, Europe is great at pragmatic compromises and it may be possible to find a formula whereby everyone can pretend that free movement has been limited but in which, for the most part, it continues.

For Nigel Farage and his UKIP supporters, who see immigration — especially from Eastern Europe — pushing down wage levels, such a fudge would be unacceptable backsliding on the sovereign will of the people.

These fissures could smash up Britain’s party political arrangements. First let’s deal with the right of British politics. The Conservative Party is going to have to choose a new leader who will automatically become prime minister. The contest will probably be between Home Secretary Theresa May who supported remain and the leavers’ leader Boris Johnson. It may not make much difference who wins.

To keep the party united the new leader will in all likelihood end up negating single market access on the best possible terms. Pro-European Union Conservatives will find it a highly unsatisfactory outcome but, given the referendum result, they have little choice but to accept it.

For Nigel Farage such an outcome would be an opportunity and put him in a strong position to build on his last election result of 13 per cent of the national vote share. Just how much better he does matters.

Under Britain’s highly disproportionate electoral system UKIP’s 13pc of the votes at the last election translated into just one of the parliament’s 650 MPs. If he broke through to over 20pc of the national vote that would result in a significant number of extra parliamentary seats.

The situation on the left is more complicated. Leaving aside the Scottish National Party, three parties can be expected to stick with unambiguously pro-remain positions: the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and Plaid Cymru. But between them they currently have just 12 MPs.

Labour is caught between the contradictory demands of its working class supporters in the north of England, some of whom oppose immigration, and its metropolitan support base in London, most of whom support it. Faced with the additional loss of its once reliable vote bank in Scotland, some are now wondering if Labour is in terminal decline.

The Labour leader, radical leftist Jeremy Corbyn has strong support among the party activists. But has little support in parliament because most Labour MPs believe he is too leftwing to ever win a general election. A vote of no confidence in him in the parliamentary party resulted in a remarkable 172 of his MPs voting against him and just 40 backing him. There will now be a leadership contest which, because of his support among party members, he might well win. That opens up the possibility of Labour MPs in parliament refusing to recognise his leadership and potentially the disintegration of the party.

These permutations could produce an utterly remarkable and highly unrepresentative outcome. The remain in the EU side had the backing of two thirds of the members of the current parliament and won 48pc of the national vote. If the many stories of people regretting their leave votes are accurate that support may have now risen to over 50pc. But at the next general election, which could be held as soon as the autumn, the remain votes could be split between the Conservatives, Labour, the Scottish Nationalists, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and, if Labour does split, a possible new centre-left party of some kind.

In those circumstances, because the British system punishes small vote shares, the remainers might be barely represented in parliament. Conservative remainers would remain quiet in the interest of party unity and the Scottish ones will be focused on securing independence. If the left disintegrates it is even possible to imagine that UKIP could emerge as the main opposition to the Conservatives. British politics has not seen anything like it since the Second World War.