Hijras -

In South Asia, Hijra is the name given to transgender individuals born male. Now they are officially recognized as a third gender, neither totally male or female, by the governments of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. I encountered these Hijras walking around a poor area of Dhaka, visiting homes where, for money, they blessed babies sometimes with music, dance, and ritual. People did not always seem pleased to see them. The money requested was hard to come by, and any refusal could incur a curse. They also blessed construction sites, sometimes by embarrassing workers and managers. However since they are marginalized and discriminated against, they have few alternatives for making money. Strangely enough, while photographing them I forgot the peculiarities of their gender and instead thought about their individual personalities - bubbly and positive, gloomy and sensitive, etc.