Real Citizens, Plastic Law: Citizenship and Gender in Pakistan

In 2018, the Pakistani Parliament introduced “khwaja sira” as a legal category of citizenship. In this talk, Professor Zafar follows emergent meanings of being khwaja sira in narratives of community development, human rights legislation and citizenship reforms by the Pakistani state in the context of a new law. How do unconventionally sexed and gendered people make livable a label that has long been criminal? Zafar will discuss negotiations with state-defined narratives of authenticity and an onto-biological performance of identity in its frictional interplay with state imaginaries of the citizen body.