A jailbreak story via the BBC south of Quetta:

Seven prisoners, including a number convicted of murder, have escaped from a Pakistani jail by using their turbans for ropes.

Speaking of jailbreaks, Charles Sobhraj has a bunch of spectacular ones to his credit. At one point he was incarcerated in a Greek prison on an island. One day he managed to purloin a syringe. He drew some of his own blood, and spat it out during an inspection, and collapsed feigning illness. As a result, he was taken to the prison hospital, and off the island. While in hospital, he lay his hands on a bottle of perfume belonging to a nurse. He didn’t know how it would come in useful, yet.

After his “treatment” Charles and some other inmates were put in a van to be taken back to the prison. While they were waiting in the harbor, Charles threw the perfume on a bunch of oily rags, and lit it, starting a fire in the van. The guards had to open the door of the van, and Sobhraj escaped in the confusion.

Now, I have read this in a pulpy book, so don’t know if its all true and accurate. Maybe it doesn’t matter.

An interesting report on the BBC (thanks to Ennis) about a Nigerian soccer player who used to be a woman. James Johnson used to play for the women’s football team, till it was discovered that she was a hermaphrodite. Iyabode Abade, as she was known then, was dropped from the team. She worked as a coach, and eventually the Nigerian government agreed to fund a sex-reassignment surgery. Now known as James Johnson, he plays for the men’s teams.

According to the Intersex Society of America 1 in 1500 to 2000 babies are born with ambiguous genitalia, but if you count subtler variations the number is higher, not to mention chromosomal variations. However, the issues often become one of social and legal definition. 0.1 to 0.2 percent of infants born in the US undergo some sort of “normalizing” surgery.

Speaking of hermaphrodites, there is an urban legend that Jamie Lee Curtis was born a hermaphrodite!

As you can see, the site has gone through some changes. I would welcome your feedback regarding the new design and features.

The Indian Government will provide a third box in its gender category on passport forms:

The new “Passport Information Booklet” relating to instructions for filling up application forms, states, “In case of Male/ Female option, please write M or F in the box space provided. For eunuch, please write ‘E’ in this box.”The new “Passport Information Booklet” relating to instructions for filling up application forms, states, “In case of Male/ Female option, please write M or F in the box space provided. For eunuch, please write ‘E’ in this box.”

I had blogged in the past about Hijras having problems getting insurance in Tamil Nadu, transgendered prostitutes in the US, and Georgie Bayer’s problems in New Zealand, so this is an amazing development. However, I haven’t seen it reported in other papers yet so can’t compare all the reports.

Sepia Mutiny had an interesting post on the discriminatory practices of the Salvation Army (which is supported by public funds), and its support for the same by the Justice Department. It turns out that the Salvation Army also has a “venerable” history in the Imperialist project. Among other things they were involved in the rehabilitation of “criminal tribes” in India, as they say, “at the invitation of the Government in 1908.”

India has about 60 million people who belong to “Denotified Tribes.” The colonial government did not like nomadic and tribal peoples they could not control and tax, so entire communities were notified as Criminal Tribes by the British in 1871. Forcible settlement and persecution followed this piece of legislation. One of the players in this sorry history is the Salvation Army. Rudolf Heredia in his review of two books, Branded By Law: Looking at India’s Denotified Tribes by Dilip D’Souza and Dishonoured by history: “criminal tribes” and British colonial policy by Meena Radhakrishnan, says:

The official intention then of the legislation was not so much punitive and retributive as preventative and remedial. It was all part of the ‘civilizing’ mission of the colonial raj. The Criminal Tribes Act provides a window through which we can examine how such good intentions of the government work themselves out into an oppressive hell for those it was supposed to benefit…..

An important player in this sordid drama was not just the government but the Salvation Army that served more as a self-conscious imperial agency rather than the evangelical sect it portrayed itself to be. It had a significant role to play in criminal legislation in Britain and all over the empire. The various schemes visualised by William Booth, its founder, in his rather pompous proposals, In Darkest England, The Way Out: A Study of Poverty and Vice in England and a Scheme by the Salvaion Army for Reclamation of Criminals and Prevention of Crime, laid out a regime in 1890 for ‘the starving, the criminal, the lunatics, the paupers, the hopeless, the drunkards and the harlots’ (p. 17) which became models that influenced British administration elsewhere as well.

Settlements were established to “rehabilitate” these communities, and it became a way to appropriate land for agriculture and provide cheap labor for industry.

We were in India in December working on a documentary about a community from one such settlement in Ahmedabad, (read about it on Kerim’s blog), and we met an old lady who had lived in the settlement, she told us how they had to take permission to even go to the bathroom, how they couldn’t go anywhere without a pass, and the list just continues.

Its so hypocritical that organizations like the Salvation Army are not held accountable for the immense harm they have caused to so many people and in fact get support from the State, and Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham want to air drop salvation into the “area of darkness” that is Asia. While the powers that be scream themselves hoarse about the threat from those “religious fanatics, out there.”

Charles Sobhraj has a new lawyer:

Controversial French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, who represented Carlos (known as Carlos the Jackal), one of the world’s most wanted terrorists before people had heard of Osama bin Laden, and then married him, has a reputation for defending unusual cases.

Coutant-Peyre was hired by Sobhraj’s wife, whom she refused to name.

A bill is being proposed in New Zealand to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity:

The member’s bill would protect hundreds of inter-sex New Zealanders - those born hermaphrodite but reassigned the wrong sex - and thousands of transgender people, Ms Beyer said. The member’s bill would protect hundreds of inter-sex New Zealanders - those born hermaphrodite but reassigned the wrong sex - and thousands of transgender people, Ms Beyer said. The bill would halt any barriers to welfare, justice, education, health and employment for the “minority within a minority” section of New Zealand.

The bill has been proposed by Georgina Beyer, possibly the world’s first transgendered member of parliament. Georgina is a Maori with a largely rural, white, conservative constituency.

Last year, PBS aired a documentary on Georgina Beyer. It chronicles her remarkable journey from being a farm boy to performer, prostitute, the mayor of her town and finally member of parliament.

Opposition MPs are vigorously protesting this bill on a sartorial basis:

“I think it is bizarre in the extreme to contemplate that cross dressing will be an approved form of dress in the military, in the police and in the prison service.”

With a state of emergency having been declared in Nepal, the Nepalese media is thankful to have a non-political story to follow, according to New Kerala:

In its search for “safe” stories ever since King Gyanendra declared an emergency Feb 1, the media has rediscovered Charles Sobhraj who has been serving a life term in a Kathmandu prison since last year.

The Himalyan Times reports that Sobhraj’s lawyer filed a petition at the United Nations Committee on Human Rights in Geneva accusing Nepali authorities of violating her client’s rights.

Hundreds of eunuchs gathered in Bhopal on Thursday to celebrate the annual “kajaria” festival to mark the climax of the monsoon. Playing loud music, making suggestive gestures and exchanging bawdy jokes with bystanders, they moved through all of old Bhopal to pray for mankind at the ancient Gupha mandir (cave temple).

I hadn’t heard of the Kajaria festival before, being more familiar with the festival in Koovagam, a small village in Tamil Nadu, unlike celebrating the monsoon this important festival for Hijras commemorates an event from the Mahabharata:

Also in attendance are the dangas, men who “become” women for the duration of the festival. The rest of the year, the dangas are husbands or single men. But during the Chittirai-Pournami festival, they wear saris, elaborate wigs, and bright plastic jewelry.

The origins of this festival can be traced to a Hindu tale in which Aravan, a man about to be sacrificed to the gods, asked to be married before dying. To fulfill this last wish, the god Krishna is said to have assumed the form of a beautiful woman and married Aravan.

Via Sepia Mutiny, the BBC reports that Janaki, a hijra was denied insurance coverage because she didn’t fit into the gender box of ‘M’ or ‘F.’

One of my jobs has been to work on a documentary about transgendered prostitutes in the US. Interestingly this little box is what they complain about as well. This little box in forms is what forces many of them to get a sex-change operation even if they are ambiguous about the decision. Many of the subjects in the film talked about losing their jobs because of how their appearance changed as they started experimenting with their identity, which forced them into prostitution, and how they were hoping to get a sex change operation so that they could check the right box and get jobs. Many of the subjects wanted to dress like women, have breasts, be addressed as “she” but didn’t necessarily want their sex organs changed, and it created many legal hurdles for them, among other things. There is a website devoted to providing support for people who do not want to belong to the either/or gender category, if you are interested in knowing what problems people face with alternate sexualities.

People seem to have a really difficult time with the idea of a third gender, as I have come to realize, even with my little film. Usually a stunned silence greets my film and people are either horrified and afraid to say so, or enjoy the film and are afraid to say so. Either way it doesn’t seem its PC for them to say how they feel, though I did get hate mail from a non-eunuch who felt I was homophobic and xenophobic, odd considering the film is made by a “foreigner.” I asked her to clarify, she hasn’t replied yet.