Eighteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

After the historic verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2009, equal citizenship rights of khawajasiras (closely translated as male-to-female transgendered persons) were accepted in Pakistan. Since then, many developments have taken place under the notion of mainstreaming the community. Although, there has never been a clearly defined vision for the notion of mainstreaming, media continues to build narratives around it. This paper examines how media has conceptualized the notion of mainstreaming of khawajasiras, and then, digs into the question of how has the discourse of mainstreaming dealt with the stereotypes and stigmas that have historically been attached with the khawajasira community. To what extent, have those stereotypes and stigmas been removed/reduced and in what ways, are they being reinforced? The study uses print news media as its data source and conducts a qualitative critical discourse analysis of news reports from 2009 to 2017 (approximately, 850 news reports). The findings show a parallel existence of conflicting discourses – one of stereotypes and stigmas reducing, and the other of, reinforcing. These findings will be discussed in light of the socio-political structure of the country.