Geography of police repression and regulation of street based khwaja sira sex workers in Lahore

Abstract

This paper looks at street-level strategies employed by the police in their everyday interactions with khwaja sira sex workers using the lens of peripheralization. The findings of this study, based on 35 in-depth interviews with street-based khwaja sira sex workers in Lahore, suggest three important strategies of police repression. These include territorialization; securitization and manipulation of violence across urban centers and peripheries. The paper argues that police repression of khwaja sira sex workers serves to disconnect them from urban centers, key social ties and safety nets, and socio-economic resources critical for their respectful survival in the city. The result is the peripheralization of khwaja sira individuals and their communities, increased dependence on precarious/traditional forms of khwaja sira livelihoods including sex work, and production of difference and marginality.

Keywords:

• police repression
• sex workers
• transgender
• violence
• Pakistan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shermeen Bano

Shermeen Bano is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Lahore, Pakistan and at the time of study she is in the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Email: [email protected]