Description
From an early age, Leyla Jagiella knew she would be defined by being Muslim and being trans. Struggling to negotiate these identities in her conservative hometown, she travelled to India and Pakistan, where her life was changed by her time among third-gender communities.
Known as hijras in India and khwajasaras in Pakistan, these marginal communities have traditionally been politically and culturally important, respected for their supernatural powers to bless or curse. But under British colonialism, the hijras were criminalised and persecuted, entrenching taboos they still battle today.
Join Leyla Jagiella, cultural anthropologist and author of Among the Eunuchs as she explores the historical and mythological context of third-gender communities.
Related Book
About the Author
Leyla Jagiella
Leyla Jagiella is a cultural anthropologist and scholar of religion who has worked on orthodoxy and heterodoxy in Islam and gender and sexuality in Muslim societies. As a Muslim trans woman, she has been a community activist for more than two decades and has held workshops on trans Muslim intersectionality and empowerment in Germany, the UK, Pakistan, Malaysia and South Africa, she has worked as a social worker with LGBTQI refugees in Germany and is currently project coordinator of the Jewish-Muslim Cultural Festival (Jüdisch-Muslimische Kulturtage) at the Muslimische Akademie Heidelberg, Germany. Her work Among the Eunuchs. A Muslim Transgender Journay was pubished in 2021 by Hurst, London.
About the Chair
Dr Shanon Shah
Shanon Shah is the author of The Making of a Gay Muslim: Religion, Sexuality and Identity in Malaysia and Britain. A multiple award-winning singer-songwriter, playwright, and journalist in his native Malaysia, he now balances scholarship and activism on religion, politics and social and environmental justice in the UK.
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