This seminar will explore Mithu Hijra’s spatial experiences in the historic house they are living in with their sister in Puran Dhaka’s Shankari Bazar area. Mithu’s house, which was built during the colonial era, is occupied by diverse bodies and lives traversing through its complex history. It is occupied by a multitude of tenants and visitors, such as work-based tenants, working-class families and family members, as well as a travelling entourage of Mithu’s Chelas and friends.
This seminar explores the ways in which Mithu has navigated the domestic spaces of their house, created a safe space to be their true self, and has shared their hijra identity within the wider community of their tenants’ heteronormative family structures. Mithu’s house consists of remnants of an old colonial era-style duplex with an inner courtyard and an accessible rooftop. It is beautifully decorated with fixtures and fittings consisting of Islamic motifs, patterns, and texts, as well as broken tile mosaic walls. The house provides an interesting journey to understand queer lives in cities like Dhaka, where prohibitive legislation against homosexuality such as Section 377 of the penal code exists, yet simultaneously, policy support in recognising the hijra community as citizens and a third gender also prevails. Dhaka’s old town has a long-standing, still ongoing connection with the hijra community and its culture, and it is this particular relationship that the seminar will explore.
Ruhul Abdin is co-founder of Paraa, an architecture, design, research and teaching studio based in Dhaka. He also practices as a visual artist, with his art practice focused around drawing from life, portraiture and photography.