There is no subject, no body, sex or gender, prior to the repressive constraints and generative power of culture … If transvestites, hermaphrodites, and other transgender categories occupy a space of desire and possibility, of undecidability, then they do so no less as socially and historically constituted subjects than as those who inhabit the conventional space … they interrupt. (Johnson 1997, 24–25)

From the beginning, I used to like playing with girls. I loved playing with dolls. I also liked putting on my mother's [or sister’s] make-up, wearing feminine clothes and dancing. I also used to perform feminine roles at home. My family couldn't accept that as I grew up. That is the reason why I left home and joined the khawaja sira community.

Only those who have been raped in youth join this [the khawaja sira] community … Once you have been raped, that never leaves you since everyone around you knows that about you. Such people, even if they leave their homes and shift somewhere else know this in their hearts [that they were raped]. Gradually, such people start developing feelings that they should have a boyfriend … The khawaja sira always starts like that.