Dhaka, Bangladesh – At the beginning of this year, dozens of men storm the door of a safe house for people in the third sector.
Among the attackers, there were people who sympathize with the community, says Babuni, who was in the safe house at the time. They threw stones and broke windows. Babuni took important items from the home office – crests, certificates and photographs – and threw them into the nearest river. Then she went to hide.
It was not always like that. Everything changed after the monsoon revolution, says Babuni. Since 2013, Bangladesh has authorized people to the third kind to identify themselves officially as such. Some have even entered politics; A rural city elected a transgender woman as mayor in 2021. But the revolution in 2024, led by young people who demanded a general political change, opened ways so that the conservatives of the hard line gain ground. Now, conservative Islamist groups threaten minorities – in particular LGBTQ +persons.
Naziya, a trans woman, says that she praised the political change, in particular the eviction of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the new interim government. But when she saw that LGBTQ + people were increasingly threatened, she ceased to identify herself publicly as a woman. She cut her hair. With a growing beard, it does not seem in the mirrors. She was attacked, she said, and stopped going to university.
Sanjana Mehebuba, a trans woman, provides legal support to her community. She says that third section people hesitate to report attacks on them to the police. They fear being targeted.
“For many,” she says, “a simple complaint poses a risk of life.”