‘My family tried to burn me’: LGBTQ Kashmiriek COVID | Coronavirus pandemic News

Srinagar, Indian administered Kashmir – For 36-year-old Sweety, being a transgender woman is “a curse”.

Sweety was originally from a remote village in the Budgam district of Kashmir, India when he realized he was about 20 years old as a transgender.

Back then, defending a woman’s life was not an easy decision in a conservative place. But being the youngest and most “beloved” child of the parents, his gender didn’t invite much trouble at first.

However, his luck did not last long. In 2016, Sweety lost both parents within four months.

The coronavirus pandemic that is forcing people into their homes has also halted social gatherings of the LGBTQ community. But the house is not a safe place for the marginalized community.

‘Ask to leave the house’

In a desperate offer he made one day in March of this year, Sweety took the risk of meeting his friend in the neighborhood.

“When I got home after the meeting, my brother gave me a slap in the face. It suffocated me, I took a deep breath. He tied my legs and then started hitting my feet with his stick, ”he said.

“The children in the house also started crying. He stopped only when my brother-in-law intervened. They asked me to throw my things away and get out of the house. “

Abandoned by his siblings, “supposedly to maintain his social status,” as he said, Sweety lives independently and is managing odds, facing all opponents.

“For my family, my existence is a curse. They want to kill me as soon as possible, because they consider me a social responsibility, ”he told Al Jazeera as he prepared his meal in a dark light room.

Sweety said he was so serious that he couldn’t walk properly for weeks.

With reduced movement and reunion, LGBTQ residents in the region have been encouraged to live with members of hostile families who are often abused in all sorts of ways.

The abuse has worsened in some series of blockades

Added to the problem is a long blockade of Kashmir since the Indian government suspended the special status of the region in August 2019.

After a six-month security shutdown, a COVID-19 pandemic erupted in March last year. This year, a second nasty wave of the virus has seen another long blockade in the calming region.

According to the 2011 census, there are more than 4,000 LGBTQ members in the region, but the number may be higher, as many believe they are reluctant to express sexual orientation.

Community members said the blockades escalated violence and harassment against them, with many stories of domestic abuse appearing from the region.

The protracted conflict over power in India has also exacerbated their plight, with many of them abandoned by their families and subjected to physical, verbal and sexual violence.

They say they often receive pornographic videos, photos of unsolicited sexual organs, text messages from strangers requesting sex, and obscene phone calls. They are also threatened with making their identities and photos public on social media.

‘My family tried to burn me’

Hibba, 28, of the main city of Srinagar, identifies himself as a lesbian. He said his family had “suffered the worst mental and physical torture”, which “increased diversity during the blockade”.

He said he was mercilessly beaten and often locked in a room without food.

“My family tried to smoke. They put hot spoons on my body, ”he said.

“Sometimes I want to end my life, I want to bury my existence. Maybe the wounds would heal but the bruises on my soul and head will never heal. I am already in three parts and I would like to put an end to this torture once and for all. “

Hibba said he tried to commit suicide several times, but “miraculously survived.”

Hibba said the situation has worsened since she was unable to meet her partner during the closures. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have dealt with all the abuse,” he said.

Aijaz Bund, the first and perhaps only LGBTQ activist in Kashmir, said there has been an exponential rise in violence against the community since the first closure in 2019.

“LGBT + people in Kashmir have always faced violence, but in normal times they had at least a temporary escape from their families. They would go out to work and so on, ”he said.

“But in the last two years, the abuse has forced them to live almost 24 × 7.”

The Bund is a non-profit organization, the Sonzal Welfare Trust, dedicated to the well-being of the LGBTQ community in the Muslim-majority region. He says the number of emergency calls has increased since it was blocked.

“Normally we would receive two or three emergency calls a month, but now the calls are over 200,” he said.

Last year, the regional administration announced a pension plan through which each transgender was entitled to receive 1,000 rupees ($ 14) per month.

But the policy has yet to be implemented, and many question whether the amount is enough to survive for months.

There are few NGOs working for the community that Kashmir activists fear for their social reaction while not speaking out for their rights.

Muskaan rests on the banks of the Veshaw River after 10 long hours in the riverbed [Zubair Amin/Al Jazeera]

In this situation, there are some LGBTQ people who have managed to gain acceptance from their families. Muskaan is one of them.

For the 26-year-old transgender, things changed for apple crops, his family’s main source of income, to be destroyed by plagues and hail for three years in a row.

“Everyone is respectful now”

Along with unhappy family and indebtedness, in 2017 Muskaan decided to take control of the situation.

“When we were almost out of food, I was immersed in participation. I would also sing and dance at weddings for money, ”he said.

“When I returned home with money in hand, the violence committed by my family came to a complete halt. Soon I started making all the family decisions. ”

Muskaan has come a long way since he was forced to drop out of school after being bullied and abused by other students. He began to travel extensively throughout the region in search of married couples for families looking for a match.

“For a parent all children are the same and we love them equally. At first, I was scared by the reaction of neighbors and relatives and took it to the healers of the faith, ”Muskaan’s mother Hajira told Al Jazeera.

“But just as Muskaan has taken on the role of family supporter, everyone respects him now. Her gender was God’s will and being a mother, I can’t rule it out. ”

But Muskaan had a crisis again in April this year, when the region was put in another lockdown and marriages stopped. He lost his job while all his savings were consumed.

“We were on the verge of starvation. Marriages were delayed and I had to look for another source of livelihood, ”he told Al Jazeera.

He now works as a miner, extracting sand, rocks and other minerals from the bed of the Veshow River near the town of Yaroo in Kesham, 80 km from Srinagar.

“It’s very hard work. My body is not made for that. I have to work 10 hours a day in the scorching heat to get about 1,400 rupees [$19]”He said, adding that work was the only way to ensure he did not suffer abuse with his family.

New Delhi sociologist Adfar Shah told Al Jazeera that being an LGBTQ person in Kashmir is “hell”.

“We are blindly discriminating against these people and labeling them as sexually deviant, evil and unwanted entities,” he said.

Islamic scholar Maulana Bilal Ahmad Qasmi has said that Al Jazeera Islam does not discriminate on the basis of gender.

“In Islam, trans-people have the same rights as other genders, but it is unfortunate that these people have to endure all kinds of abuse at the hands of the family and society,” he said.