"One By One, They Raped Me": Sexual Violence Against Khwaja Sira (Third Gender People) in Swat, Pakistan

Background and Purpose. Sexual violence (SV) is a public health crisis with profound impacts on individuals, families, and communities in terms of both physical and mental health outcomes, including increased risk for depression, anxiety, suicidality, and HIV. As compared to cisgender, heterosexual individuals, people who are transgender or gender-nonconforming (TGNC) are often perceived to be a threat to social norms and gender role expectations, which increases their risk for experiencing intersectional forms of SV across the lifespan. The extant research literature has paid relatively little attention to the experiences of khwaja sira (third gender people) in Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. To address this gap, the objective of the present study is to explore themes related to SV against khwaja sira in the city of Mingora, Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Methods. The study population is defined as khwaja sira in Mingora, Swat in the Malakand region of KP, Pakistan, which borders the eastern province of Nangarhar in Afghanistan. Through our ongoing ethnographic research, we estimated that there are approximately 120 individuals who identify as khwaja sira in Mingora. We recruited over a third of the estimated population, 45 khwaja sira, to participate in in-depth qualitative interviews on their lived experiences with SV. Interviews were digitally audio recorded in Pashto, then translated into English for coding and interpretation. A team of five independent coders applied social learning theory (SLT) and intersectional perspectives to conduct thematic content analysis of the transcripts (Krippendorf & Bock 2009). Inductive analyses were used to identify new themes that emerged from the data and deductive approaches were used to explore themes related to khwaja sira’s experiences with sexual violence. After reviewing the first ten transcripts, six evaluators—the principal investigator, two research assistants in Pakistan, and two U.S.-based research assistants—developed an initial codebook of themes (Miles & Huberman 1994). After multiple reads of the transcripts, open line-by-line coding was conducted to reduce the data into manageable chunks. We examined earlier codes and compared these against emerging codes, collapsing and eliminating redundant themes that did not prove to be the most salient. Consensus was ultimately reached on all coding decisions. Coding was aided by the use of the qualitative data analysis software program, Dedoose.

Results. We identified three major themes: (1) childhood experiences of SV are highly prevalent; (2) adult experiences with rape are similar to experiences of childhood SV; and (3) many khwaja sira have experienced gang rapes in both childhood and adulthood. The majority of respondents reported that they had experienced childhood sexual abuse, often by teachers in school settings. Sexual assaults in adulthood were frequently followed by various forms of physical abuse, including beatings, robberies, and kidnappings.

Conclusions and Implications. Many participants reported that their experiences with SV were connected to negative community perceptions regarding their identities as sex workers. Several participants reported having few options for responding to these violent encounters because the police were unresponsive to their complaints. Study findings highlight an important unmet need regarding the safety of khwaja sira communities in Pakistan.