Eröffnung der Trans*Aktionswochen Rhein-Neckar 2021

Gespräch & Performance, Sex and the Cosmopolis – A Conversation on Transnational Transgender Identities in South Asia and beyond, im Café Leitstelle, Emil-Maier-Straße 16, 69115 Heidelberg, Eintritt frei, Veranstaltungssprache ist Englisch, veranstaltet vom Institut für Religionswissenschaft der Universität Heidelberg und dem Amt für Chancengleichheit der Stadt Heidelberg

Being transgender has become the hot topic in recent years. Transgender personalities have been the focus of Netflix and Amazon dramas and have entered the German Bundestag as much as American influencer families. Vibrant and sometimes also very ugly discussions on the rights of transgender people have become an important part of public debate in the USA, UK and Germany. In the center of all this new social visibility largely stands the transgender community of the Global North, however. While the global debate on transgender issues is also informed by other contexts that have an increasing influence on the direction of the debate as well. In South Asia, for example, centuries old traditions on third gender identities have entered a discussion with modern globalized notions of sexuality and gender and that confluence develops ever-shifting notions of identity and agency.

We will look at one of these discussions, the discourse around transgender and third gender identities in Pakistan. In conversation are: Kami, celebrated transgender model, actress and activist from Pakistan, Hina, an award-winning social innovator and trans focal person based in Pakistan and Omar Kasmani, Berlin-based anthropologist and author of „Queer Companions. Religion, Public Intimacy, and Saintly Affects in Pakistan“.
The conversation will be moderated by Leyla Jagiella, author of „Among the Eunuchs. A Muslim Transgender Journey“.
Introduction: Danijel Cubelic, Director, Office of Equal Opportunities, City of Heidelberg & Margret Göth, LGBTI Commissioner, City of Mannheim
Organized by the Institute for Religious Studies, Heidelberg University, and the Office of Equal Opportunities of the City of Heidelberg