Counter Home: Unravelling the Socio-Spatial Dynamics of Hijra Dwellings of Khulna, Bangladesh

Abstract

Amidst limited social acceptance and scant governmental and non-governmental support for third gender communities in Bangladesh, this paper explores the intricate relationship between the conception of hijra and its profound impact on redefining the notion of home. In the queer tropics, hijra communities form a unique identity within South Asia’s urban fabric. Employing ethnographic methods and spatial analysis, this multidisciplinary study investigates the hijra home-making process in Khulna, Bangladesh, shedding light on their lived experiences. It unravels the complex interplay of tropical architecture leading to their transformation into, and stigmatisation as, hijras, investigating the spatial implications of their stigma in the organisation of household spaces based on hijra notions of publicness-privateness, spatial sequencing/order, layering, and hierarchy. The formal articulation of homes and their integration into the larger urban scale signifies a distinctive counter-spatial culture within this marginalised community, which acts to counter prevailing ideas of stability, ownership, and family within the concept of home. This counter-culture, as the paper unveils, makes the hijra home dynamics a process of socio-spatial transaction where gender identities manifest and are subverted/shaped by the domestic space. The findings of the paper enrich our understanding of the diverse spatial ways social discriminations are interwoven into the ordinary fabric of contemporary urban living in the tropical city of Khulna.