Poor shemale yearns for medical treatment

PESHAWAR: Complaining against the society, community and even her own family, a 22-year old shemale Saveera said she abandoned by all after they came to know she suffered from hepatitis-C.

Hailing from Shawa Adda town in Swabi district, Saveera told The News that her family had expelled her from home and she had been living with shemales in Peshawar since long. 

“My community members left me in the lurch. Instead of providing me medical treatment, they rather started an undeclared social boycott,” she said amidst tears rolling down her cheeks.

Saveera said that her fellow community members did not take her to functions. “It really hurts me when they leave house without even informing me,” she said.

Saveera, whose real name is Hasnain Khan, recalled that she along with her colleagues was once too busy to perform dances at weddings, parties and gatherings but now unable to do so due to ailment.

She said some friends suggested to her to see a doctor when her health condition deteriorated. She said she visited a doctor who conducted medical tests. She tested positive for hepatitis- C.

Clad in green dress, Saveera said that some of her friends would crack jokes on her for her disease. They used to say I have contracted AIDS or cancer, which pierces my heart,” she added.

The ailing shemale said she has been in her room for the last one month and had nothing to do. “I have no one in this world and pray to Allah Almighty to take my life,” she said while bursting into tears.She said she knew that committing suicide was also forbidden in our religion or else she would have gone for that.

Saveera said she was facing starvation as she could not perform at weddings and parties to earn livelihood.  “At times, I eat bread with qehwa (green tea) and sometimes only bread,” she maintained, adding that the life of every shemale in such a situation or old age becomes miserable.  She said: “I have only mother. She is sincere to me but she is also ill. I usually go to see her secretly but I had not seen her for the last several months.”

When asked about her wish, she said: “I wish I had someone who could take me to a hospital.” She said she had spent whatever she had on the treatment. The young shemale deplored that the people around her had no respect for shemales. She said that they did not expect respect from the society because their own parents did not accept them in their own home.