This research seeks to engage with Sindh Moorat March as an emergent social movement led by transgender (khwajasira/hijra/gender-nonconforming) persons in Pakistan. Sindh Moorat March, as a social movement, transpired in 2022 as the first Transgender social movement, aiming to question structural patriarchy, gendered power structures, and identity politics. Since 2018, transgender activists (Khwaja Siras and Moorats) have not only struggled for the rights of their communities but also actively contributed to the new wave of feminist struggle (Aurat March). With transphobia/homophobia/misogyny intensified in the years following the Aurat March in 2018, the violence against transpersons aggravated, compelling transgender persons to start the movement for their rights more actively. Since 2022, they have successfully started Moorat March in one of the largest cities of Pakistan, i.e., Karachi. This research documents Sindh Moorat March and its historical roots, focusing on its contribution to feminist/gender politics in contemporary times. This paper situates the Moorat March within Pakistan’s boarder landscape of social movements, tracing its intersections with feminist activism, queer politics, and cultural discourses on gender/sexual diversity.
Employing a feminist case study approach, this research highlights the relevance and significance of such political mobilization (from the grassroots). Looking at the strategies employed, content produced, objectives envisioned, and goals achieved so far, this research would contribute to the nascent scholarship on decolonial/indigenous transgender political activism in South Asia. This study also demonstrates how Sindh Moorat March, as a social movement, works for the rights of transgender communities at the national level against multiple forms of patriarchies (especially the religious patriarchy), enriching the transgender knowledge/activist discourse in South Asia. This study argues that this social movement reconfigures the boundaries of the political by centering affect, embodiment, and performance as modes of protest, thus expanding the horizons of citizenship and resistance in contemporary Pakistan.
