Trans Addicts

Social isolation is causing spread of drug addiction among trans persons, but govt is yet to set up cheap rehabs for them

PESHAWAR: Having lived a life of perpetual exposure to social rejection, threats and maltreatment, the transgender community in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and elsewhere in Pakistan is now becoming increasingly exposed to the use of killer stimulant drugs such as heroin and ice (crystal methamphetamine).

To their misfortune, there are no public-sector trans-friendly rehabilitation centers in the region. Some privately-owned hospitals do offer such services, but they are too expensive for most transgender addicts whose only source of income is dancing at weddings and prostitution – both having low-fee tags compared to female prostitutes and dancers.

Inquiries by Bol News show that ice, as well as other drugs such as heroin and marijuana are easily available in Peshawar. More than 200 transgenders in the city are addicted to ice, and at least four of them have died due to drug abuse over the last few months.

Farzana Ilyas, a transgender activist who is president of Trans-Action Pakistan, a transgender community welfare organization, has been dealing with the drugs issues among the transgender community in the KP region. For her, the main problem is that there is no facility for transgender drug users’ rehabilitation in the government sector, and private hospitals are too expensive.

“There is not one or two addicts, but hundreds, and their numbers are rising,” she says. “We help as many as we can by collecting funds from within the community, but we can’t reach out to every patient, which means that they are left alone to die.”

Another transgender activist, Sanam, said drugs were easily available in several parts of the city, including the suburbs around Gulbahar and Dalazak Road areas where most transgender communities live with their gurus (group elders) in apartment buildings.

Transgenders are attracted to these drugs due to several social factors, she says. “They (transgenders) suffer coercion, sexual abuse and societal hatred, which causes mental trauma in many. So, they find relief in drugs, especially ice,” she said.

She also complained about the absence of government-run rehabilitation centers, which provides the “private sector with a chance to exploit the patients. I have been dealing with these centres on behalf of some community addicts. Many charge us Rs 10,000 for a day’s treatment, and at least Rs 50,000 in monthly charges for patients that have to kept under observation for longer periods.”

She said the community have taken up this issue with the provincial authorities on many occasions, but to no avail. “We are on our own,” she said.

Bol News spoke to a few transgender addicts to find out why they got into drugs. One of them, Shakeela from Mardan region, said that although, like most transgenders, she was shunned by her family and lived most of her life in a guru-led community, reports of the successive deaths

“I felt that there was no one left in my life. I had no urge to continue to live any longer. But then some friends urged me to use ice, and it relieved my pain,” she said. “I was hooked to it for a considerable time, but then I started getting uneasy with the illusions the ice caused. So I decided to get rid of it.”

Shakeela is currently being treated at a private rehabilitation center in Peshawar.

Another transgender, Muskan from Kohat area, is also under treatment at same center in Peshawar. She cites hatred by the people and mistreatment by the police as reasons why she got hooked to drugs. “I am really annoyed at being a Pakistani; my third-gender national identity (CNIC) is worth nothing as my gender is not respected. It’s not my fault that I was born a transgender. For God’s sake, don’t mistreat us. It has cost many of us our lives. Have mercy on us.”

After treatment, she feels a bit calm. “I want to live, and request all my community members to shun drugs and get back to life, which is a precious gift from Allah Almighty. Drugs are no fun. They are a misery. They put my life in danger.”

Dr Taufeeq Shah, who set up Shaheen Drug Welfare Hospital after retirement from government service to help rehabilitate drug addicts, says he started accepting transgender addicts for rehabilitation when they were refused admission by other private hospitals. So far, he says, his centre has fully rehabilitated at least four transgenders, while some others are under treatment.

“Many of them are educated, and all of them are lovely people”, he said. “We are doing whatever we can to help them with our meagre resources that mostly come from charity. But the real responsibility lies with the state; it has to pay heed to this issue, which is becoming serious.”

He said the real issue with the transgenders is that “they feel insecure, and need special attention, but can’t afford the cost of treatment. The government has to step forward, and set up trans-friendly drugs rehabilitation centers.”

Asked to explain why most of his transgender patients fell on drugs, Dr Taufeeq Shah said that just like other normal drug addicts, transgenders, too, mostly get into drugs due to “family issues, demoralization, bad company, and above all, mental stress due to joblessness, societal injustices and psychological issues.”

He said that in recent times ice has become a routine drug for most of them who seek mental calm and peace. “Ice, which contains the chemical, crystal methamphetamine, is a stimulant drug used to treat chronic mental and physical problems, but it is highly addictive.”

Qamar Nasim, a transgender rights activist, opined that family isolation, violence and joblessness have forced many transgenders into drug abuse, substance abuse and use of all kinds of drugs.

“Besides social pressures, most transgenders are into dancing profession and sex work, which are both vulnerable areas,” he said. “They are mostly interacting with the criminal minded elements and are thus at high risk of drug addiction. Also, most of their sex partners are drug users and often force them to use drugs with them, which then becomes a routine affair.”

He emphasized the need for trans-friendly rehabilitation centers at government level to provide treatment and psycho-social support to transgenders as the trans community needs special attention.