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DHAKA (AFP): Bangladesh today (Friday) has opened its first Islamic school for the transgender Muslim community, whose members face widespread discrimination in Muslim society and often live in abject poverty.
According to details, almost 50 transgender students recite Quranic verses to mark the opening of the Dawatul Islam Tritio Linger Madrasa, or Islamic Third Gender School. The madrasa is one of the recent moves in Bangladesh to make life easier for the 1.5 million transgender persons.
A group of clerics led by Abdur Rahman Azad transformed the top floor of a three-storey building into the school with funding from a local charity. The students will learn to recite Quran and the basic principles of Islam, but will also be taught Bengali, English, maths and receive some vocational training.
Talking to an international news agency, Abdur Rahman Azad said, “People who are transgender are also human beings, they too have a right to education, to live a dignified life.”
“We have a plan to open schools for them across the country so that no one is deprived of education. We are starting with just over 100 students, who will learn Islamic and vocational subjects. We wish to turn them into human resources,” he added.
Azad’s team already offers the Holy Quran lessons to seven transgender groups in Dhaka and said the madrasa grew out of the need for a permanent base for the community.
Meanwhile, a 33-year-old student said, “I am ecstatic. We are grateful to the clerics for this beautiful move. We are Muslims, yet we can’t go to a mosque. We can’t even mix with other members of society.”
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has since 2013 allowed trans to be identified as a separate gender. Last year they were allowed to register to vote as a third gender, and their numbers will be counted in a census.
