ICTs Improve Social Justice Education: Transgenders in Pakistan

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Monday II)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Educational technology and social accountability

Proposal

In Pakistan, I worked with the US Government as Cultural Affairs Advisor to establish the first-ever support network for transgenders. This is how I came to be involved in the issue of transgeders in Pakistan. The transgender community is among the most disadvantaged groups in Pakistan who faced and still facing racial violence. Due to the culture and religious social order, this violence is socially and morally authorized in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the Government has not taken enough measures to humanize them and depict them as worthy of human rights. When lower/ middle-class men engage the services of trans folks in prostitution, these men are not held accountable for the violence that they visit on the bodies of the “Other”. In this paper, I will discuss how technologies can improve the social justice education and awareness in Pakistan. I will theorize how this type of violence is connected to colonialism, and possibly, notions of nationalism.

In my opinion, the level of violence these TGs experience is tantamount to genocide. The protection of universal justice does not operate in the spaces where this genocide occurs. Despite the fact it keeps on happening, the law continues to be silent on it. I will theorize why in Pakistan, the murder of a transgender is not considered as a murder of any human being and how technology can help create a support system for these victims. In principle, the religion Islam advocates for the prosperity of all including transgenders and considers all humans close to God. How can technology save transgenders to be deemed disposable in Pakistan by educating Pakistani public, specifically getting the support of religious groups?

Author

• Muhammad Waqar Ahmad, NATO Association of Canada