A transgender woman s fight for dignity in Bangladesh s Rohingya refugee camps

KUTUPALONG REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh - With her tiny studio tucked in the crowded lanes of the sprawling Rohingya refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh, Tanya is a popular beautician, with long lines of people waiting for her signature haircuts and facials.

But behind her carefully applied makeup lies a harsher reality for Tanya - she is a transgender woman in a community that barely tolerates her existence.

Being Rohingya is hard, she said. But being a transgender Rohingya is even harder.

Tanya, 25, left Myanmar in 2017 with hundreds of thousands of other Rohingya Muslim refugees escaping a brutal military crackdown.

Life in the worlds largest refugee settlement is difficult for everyone, but for Tanya, the discrimination adds extra challenges.

Along with the hardship of displacement, she faces rejection from her own people, who see her identity as taboo.

I can’t visit my 55-year-old mother anymore,” she said, sitting in her 10-by-10-foot (three-by-three metre) salon. Every time I tried, the neighbours attacked me. They threw water at me, pelted stones, pulled my hair. I couldn’t bear it anymore, so I stopped going.

Born in Maungdaw in Myanmars Rakhine state, Tanya knew from an early age she was different. But in the conservative Rohingya society, there was no place for someone like her.

When her family refused to accept her, she left home and found support amongst the Hijra, a community of transgender people who often live together for safety and survival. Her godmother in the group gave her the name Tanya.

Officials estimate there are about 10,000 hijras, or third-gender people, in Bangladesh but rights groups say the figure could be as high as 1.5 million in the country of 170 million.

They face severe social stigma and discrimination in both Myanmar and Bangladesh, with many disowned by their families, denied