hijra

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Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1 1.1.1 Noun 1.1.1.1 Usage notes 1.2 Etymology 2 1.2.1 Noun 1.2.2 Translations

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology 1

Arabic هجرة (híjra), “‘departure, exodus’”), referring to Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina in AD 622; from the verb هجر (hájara), “‘emigrate, to abandon’”)

[edit] Noun

hijra (plural hijras)

1. See Hijra.

[edit] Usage notes

Usually uppercase

[edit] Etymology 2

From Urdu ہیجڑا (hījṛā), “‘eunuch, hermaphrodite’”) / Hindi हीजड़ा (hījṛā), “‘eunuch, hermaphrodite’”).

Wikipedia

[edit] Noun

hijra (plural hijras)

1. eunuch transvestite.
   • 1995 Gayatri Reddy:With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, & Culture) ISBN: 0226707563 http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/16479.ctl

     With Respect to Sex is an intimate ethnography that offers a provocative account of sexual and social difference in India. The subjects of this study are hijras or the "third sex" of India, individuals who occupy a unique, liminal space between male and female, sacred and profane. Hijras are men who sacrifice their genitalia to a goddess in return for the power to confer fertility on newlyweds and newborn children, a ritual role they are respected for, at the same time as they are stigmatized for their ambiguous sexuality. (review).

   • 1994: John Irving: A Son of the Circus: Bloomsbury ISBN 0747517630 P.57.

     "They are an accepted third gender in India; they are called hijras - an Urdu word of masculine gender meaning hermaphrodite. But hijras are not born hermaphrodites, they are emasculated - hence eunuch is the truer word for them....And hijras dress as women, hence the term "eunich transvestite" comes closest to what they are.

[edit] Translations