Embodying sufism: the spiritual culture of third gender (khwaja sira) communities in Pakistan

Khwaja Sira is the term for the ‘third gender’ community in Pakistan. As in many other nations around the world, they have been systematically marginalised in Pakistan too. Although their rights and identity were recently recognised in law, the implementation of the legal provisions remains patchy. Amen Jaffer, however, shows how the khwaja siras have for long been opting into the praxis of the spiritually-venerated sufi culture to carve out a space for themselves amid the mores and structures of Pakistani society.