Spiritualising Marginality: Sufi Concepts and the Politics of Identity in Pakistan

Abstract

Similar to many parts of South Asia, hijras in Pakistan define themselves as a distinctive gender that is neither men nor women. This article explores hijra identity in Pakistan by focusing on the creative appropriation of Sufi discourses, practices and organisational forms by hijras to construct a spiritual gender identity for themselves. The political significance of this Sufi-informed identity can be located at two different levels. One is the level of the self. I argue in this article that engagement with Sufi concepts, such as faqiri and mast, is central to the construction of a dignified and powerful image of the hijra self that challenges the marginalised status assigned to hijras. The second level of analysis is concerned with the hijra community’s connection with Sufi networks. My argument here is that basing their community, which is cut-off from society and rejects the blood-ties based model of the family, on the model of Sufi groups allows hijras to legitimise their alternative social organisation. However, even though, Sufism offers hijras a possibility to access power, this does not mean that their spiritual claims are always recognised or that a spiritual gender identity does not have its own limitations.