A group of women stand tensed outside Allah Rakha’s house in Muridke while his wife stridently moans in pain giving birth to her 11th child. Allah Rakha anxiously paces like a steam engine from one corner of his house to the other, nervously puffing on his cigarette with a box of sweets in his hands, desperately waiting for the ‘big news’.
The door opens and the midwife, sweating from head to toe, slowly comes outside the room with her head lowered and hands clasped in one another. Allah Rakha halts, puts out his cigarette, races to the midwife and asks about the child.
As Allah Rakha haunts the midwife with his blood-filled inquisitive eyes, the midwife hesitantly murmurs, “The mother and the child are safe.”
Allah Rakha jumps with joy, shouts his guts out with happiness, rushes to pick up the sweets box. Beaming with joy, as he trots back while opening the box, he enquires if it’s a boy.
The midwife shakes head in negation. Allah Rakha’s smile begins to fade. Recovering from the news, he remarks, “Well, even girls are Allah’s blessings.”
As he begins to distribute sweets, the midwife breaks the ‘big news’.
“It isn’t a girl either.” The sweets box drops from Rakha’s hand!
As the news spread the village, Baba Nazia, a guru of the eunuchs, begins to frequent Rakha’s house, begging to grant him the custody of the child.
“This child is ours. It has nothing to do with your family. Allow me to take this child with me in my world. I will raise it as my own. It will be safe and comfortable with more of its kind,” Baba Nazia continues to beg for the custody.
Rakha names his child Resham and raises her for four years. All this while Baba Nazia continues to visit his place and ask for Resham.
After four years of hectic efforts, Baba Nazia finally gets a breakthrough. Rakha agrees to cast out his flesh and bones.
Baba Nazia brings Resham to Kingra, a village few kilometers from Raiwind, and hands her over to Guru Parveen, who takes the responsibility of Resham’s upbringing.
WE ARE PURE!: Resham, 22 years old now, lives with Parveen at Kingra.
“I am not like other eunuchs you see in your city,” Resham begins to speak.
“Yes my parents abandoned me but this is where I belong! My Guru Parveen is everything to me. She taught me to recite Quran, educated me in the nearby school and taught me never to beg or sell out my body to anyone! I have to make sure that I don’t blemish the 300-year-old spotless tradition of my gurus.”
Resham speaks proudly of her lineage. Oozing with self esteem and dignity she vows to never have indulged in any sexual activity with anyone.
“The eunuchs in the city have spoiled our repute. They involve in all kinds of bad activities and beg and dirty the society. Eunuchs are supposed to be pure beings. We are the ones who are respected in holy places for our body is clean from all the sins other humans commit,” says Resham.
Her guru tells the history of their lineage and of Resham as she very respectfully offers ‘lassi’ to Pakistan Today’s staff at her house.
“No one dares to enter our house with a bad intention. The noble guests, however, are respected,” Guru Parveen speaks out gently.
“Resham’s mother still visits her every four to five months. We sit and eat together. She is satisfied for I have taken good care of Resham. However, I regret that I could not get her educated beyond 8th grade. She was growing up and the people would make fun of her. I had to get her out of the mental torture.”
Parveen tells Pakistan Today that a few houses in the village offered them food. They got up early in the morning, collected food and returned to their house before dusk. No one was allowed to knock their door post dusk, Parveen stressed repeatedly, reiterating their revulsion from sexual activities.
“I don’t get how the eunuchs in your city bear children. True eunuchs are incapable of producing a child. Basically, they are imposters who dance half naked on a rich man’s gesture and then end up getting pregnant. They are lustful beasts who would do anything for money. They bring bad name to our entire noble community,” says Parveen.
Resham sadly admits that she was scared moving in the society. The people in the streets would pitch in indecent proposals while others would hurl abuses.
“What have I done to deserve this treatment from the society? I have never had sex, never danced at a function, never begged and regularly offer my prayers as we strive to live a noble life. And what do I get? A tag of a prostitute! Of the society’s filth and what not! Why can’t the government do something for us?” Resham cries out.
Parveen’s eyes are filled with tears as she pacifies Resham.
“You are wasting your time. Why are you here? What will you do with our story? Publish it? That’s all? What will happen then? Nothing! Our leaders are just way too respected to come and help us; do something to uplift our status in the society. They feel unlucky to share the same breathing space with us. Even if a leader makes it this far to our house, we all know what that noble leader would ask for at the sight of a virgin eunuch. Just let it be…”
Reporting by Rana Haider, translation and editing by Moosa Abbas.
What a horrible whether real or fase,but is very astonishing.Due to lack of proper and inadequate Islamic Teaching,where we are going .nobody knows.
wtf, Muslims (pakistani's) are bad people!
Muslims are very kind and particularly Pakistanis Muslims are very gentle and simple.I will never say you bad people as Allah has created all human being in fine ways.But I will say your behavior is not good.In future don`t dare to say Muslims bad.
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