Transphobia

Organisers:

Overseas Progressive Pakistanis (www.opp-platform.com) 

New Women Connectors (www.newwomenconnectors.com) 

Scope:

Do we believe we are equal human beings irrespective of religion, race, creed, nationality and sexual orientation, gender identity, no one is superior to another in any regard, and do we promote this equality or try not to label others or preach hatred and intolerance?

The webinar is meant to provide information, raising consciousness, and tackling the prejudices that exist among the Pakistanis and the other communities for LGBTIQ+. We shall briefly unpack the terminology used in the Queer community for broad understanding. However, on the premise of “Equal Rights and Equal Treatment for All” the discussion will focus on social and cultural exclusions of LGBTIQ+ communities. Our panellists will further share a range of psychological-social-cultural issues with which a person has to deal with while growing up in a family, more specifically in a South-Asian/Muslim family. How to create empathy and compassion while interacting with the people who have different gender identity and sexual orientation; how to create an environment where these differences are rationalized, accepted and celebrated? Shouldn’t we consider it as serious as we take discrimination based on race, culture, religion and minority ground? After the presentations by the panellists, the floor shall be open for discussion and the participants would be sharing their opinion and ask questions for further dialogue.

Speakers/Panellists:

1. Dr Laine Munir

“Dr Munir is a legal and political anthropologist examining the intersection of gender politics, law, and forced displacement from the Global South. As a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Rwanda, she takes a comparative approach in examining postcolonial political environments, juxtaposing the Pakistan case with those of African states. For the Migration Institute of Finland, she is currently working on a book chapter on the diasporic relationship between transgender Pakistanis in Europe and their families back home. She has also published on the drivers of asylum-seeking by LGBTIQ+ Pakistani migrants and their subsequent challenges in the EU system. She is an active contributor to the UNSW's Kaldor Center for Refugee Law in Australia as well as Emerging Scholars and Practitioners in Migration Issues. She holds an interdisciplinary PhD from New York University 

in Law and Society and an M.A. in Human Rights from Columbia University”.

2. Lilith

“Lilith is a trans woman with a migration background. She is working for the rights of LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers in Germany since 2015. Since November 2017 she is working for the German-wide LSVD e.V Project “Queers Refugees Deutschland”. The aim of this LSVD project “Queer Refugees Deutschland” is to network the structures existing throughout Germany as well as refugee LGBTI activists and to support them in their work.” 

3. Tina Dixson

“Tina Dixson is a feminist academic and a policy professional, who has worked in the areas of LGBTIQ, refugee and women’s rights both in Australia and Europe. Tina is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University researching lived experiences of LGBTIQ asylum-seeking and refugee women in Australia. Tina is a co-founder of the Queer Sisterhood Project (a refugee-led support group for queer refugee women, a co-convener of the first Australian conference on LGBTIQ+ asylum Queer Displacements: Sexuality, Migration and Exile and a chair of the Forcibly Displaced People Network, the first Australian organisation to dedicate its work to the issues of LGBTIQ+ forced displacement and be driven by the lived experience of it”.