We live in a culture where there is still a big disparity in understanding the idea of gender. We are socialized to believe that gender is binary; nevertheless, gender is flexible, and transgender people face tremendous societal stigma in our nation and across the world due to a lack of awareness of this notion. Because they are “different” and so cannot be classified as “man” or “female,” our transgender community is a vulnerable minority that is frequently denied social, economic, and political rights. From the moment they are born until they die, most transgender people suffer prejudice from their families and society.
“আড়ালের গল্প: Behind the Curtains” is a project of SAVE Youth- Students Against Violence with a vision to change the public perceptions of the transgender and Hijra communities in our country. The initiative aims to use docu-films to bring real-life events to mainstream social media platforms, as well as to create a powerful narrative about the Hijra community in our country. Lamea Tanjin Tanha a resilient SAVE youth has initiated this program.
The success of Behind the Curtains:
Lamea has created three docu-films so far with her team members. Some of the key successes of her overall program are
- Since the launch of the “আড়ালের গল্প: Behind the Curtains” project it has had a positive outcome and reception among the mass population. The promo video that was launched has over 10 thousand views with 300+ reactions across TransEnd’s social media platform. After the call for submissions was announced, over 50 stories were submitted through Google Forms.
- TransEnd is paying the Hijra cast members. As a result, it is helping them economically while also creating a scope for this marginalized community to showcase their talent in front of thousands of people. It is also giving them a platform to solidify and promote their own true narrative, breaking the age-old stigma that society has imposed on the Hijra community.
Furthermore, TransEnd has recently started to recruit new volunteers, and during the interview, a number of interviewees expressed how the promotional docu-film has changed their perspective and, consequently, inspired them to apply to TransEnd to work for the marginalized community and unravel more prevailing stigmas.
Her first docu-film is about how a Hijra APA helped a teen girl get onto the bus and how that bus journey has created a friendship between them. According to the story, one of the bus passengers named Subha was struggling to get on the bus as this was the first time she was traveling with her guardian. However, suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and she became scared as she looked back and saw the hand is of a hijra. From Subha’s family ad her grandparents she heard that Hijra people are somehow dangerous for maximum people. But the soft voice of that Hijra named Koli melted her heart. Koli helped Subha to get on the bus and within two months they became very close to each other. Subha’s story has a positive message for our society and that is the perception of our society regarding Tran gender community is always negative which is somewhat not true. Transgender people are not harmful and dangerous as our society thinks. Despite some setbacks, Behind the Curtains is nearing completion owing to the combined efforts of the cast members, scriptwriters, video directors, editors, and many others. Furthermore, to compensate for the little time delay, Lamea has planned to release the videos after measuring the peak time and a suitable time gap between each video release, in order to achieve the highest level of engagement.