Bangladesh’s first mosque specifically for hijra Muslims has officially opened its doors, as members of the legally recognized “third gender” community seek refuge from abuse and discrimination.
Named the Dakshin Char Kalibari Masjid for the Third Gender, the mosque opened in March, providing worship services for hijra people who are frequently turned away from other mosques due to prejudice, according to a report from the Agence France-Presse.
The mosque consists of a single-room building with a tin roof, paid for and built by hijras near the city of Mymensingh on government-donated land after hijra worshippers were expelled from the local community. The land already contains a graveyard and one plot, belonging to a hijra woman who was denied burial at a local mosque last year, AFP reported.
“From now on, no one can deny a hijra from praying in our mosque,” community leader Joyita Tonu, 28, reportedly told the congregation upon the mosque’s opening last month. “No one can mock us.”
The terms “hijra” and “transgender” are often used interchangeably in English media, but the two identities are separate in Bangladesh and other South Asian countries, though there is some overlap between them. The Bangladeshi government declared hijras a “third gender” distinct from men and women in 2014, but there is no formal path to be legally recognized as hijra. No standard policy for changing one’s legal gender marker to “hijra” exists, and various types of identification cards carry mismatched gender markers, according to the international LGBTQ+ rights group ILGA. Even vague recognition has come with drawbacks, such as the association of hijra identity with disfigurement and complex disability politics. In the decade since winning formal recognition, hijras have also experienced a dramatic rise in violence, medical abuse, and ostracization as religious fundamentalism surges across the region. (Same-sex intercourse itself is illegal in Bangladesh, but that law is not evenly enforced.)
Sonia, 42, told AFP reporters that despite being a devout Muslim all her life, she was abruptly kicked out of her mosque after coming out as hijra. “I never dreamt I could pray at a mosque again in my lifetime,” she recalled. “People would tell us: ‘Why are you hijra people here at the mosques? You should pray at home. Don't come to the mosques.’
“It was shameful for us, so we didn't go,” she added. “Now, this is our mosque. Now, no one can say no.”
Hijra communities have slowly reestablished dedicated spaces of safety in recent years, despite frequent backlash from conservative leaders. In 2020, the first Muslim school (or madrasa) for hijra students opened in Bangladesh, combating the community’s lack of access to educational and religious resources. Designed for safety, community, and healing, spaces like the madrasa and mosque have also begun shifting public opinion of hijras in the country.
“When they started to live with us, many people said many things,” area resident Tofazzal Hossain told AFP last month; after praying alongside them, he says his own “misconceptions” of hijras, in general, have changed. “[W]e've realized what people say isn't right. They live righteously like other Muslims,” Hossain said.
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