Dancing in a City That Calls Me Haram

By Namkeen Peshawri

I learned early that my body was political. 

In Peshawar, you do not dance unless you are invited. You do not raise your voice unless you are permitted. And you certainly do not exist publicly as a Khwajasira* and expect safety. 

But I dance anyway. 

My art did not begin on a stage. It began in small rented rooms, in shelter spaces, in borrowed courtyards. It began when other transgender sisters sat in a circle and said, 'We need to breathe'. We did not call it therapy. We called it mehfil. Gathering. Survival. 

They call us haram. Forbidden. 

But I know my lineage. Khwajasiras were once guardians of culture, advisors, singers in royal courts. We carried stories in our wrists, rhythm in our ankles. My dance is not rebellion; it is memory. 

When mobs shout outside our office, when phone calls whisper threats, when I must reduce my visibility to survive, art becomes shelter. Poetry becomes oxygen. I recite verses about dignity at international platforms, but I also whisper them to myself when fear sits on my chest at night. 

Mental health in my community does not look like clinics. It looks like collective breathing. It looks like a trans woman painting her portrait for the first time. It looks like Afghan refugees and Pashtun hosts sitting together, drawing futures in bright colors. 

I am a street performer in a city that wants me invisible. I am a visual artist painting elongated necks and soft faces in a place that prefers rigid lines. My body has been called unnatural. My existence has been debated. 

But when I dance, I am not asking permission. 

I am reclaiming space. 

And in that movement — fragile, stubborn, luminous — there is well-being. 

*Khwajasira is a culturally rooted term used in South Asia, particularly in Pakistan, to describe a traditional third gender community with its own history, identity, and social structure.

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Bio: Namkeen Peshawri (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, and founder of Trans Support Group in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Rooted in Indigenous Khwajasira identity, her work explores gender diversity, mental health, and reclaiming public space through performance, visual art, and community dialogue. She advocates for LGBTQIA+ dignity and social cohesion across South Asia. 

Follow Namkeen on Instagram @grouptranssupport

Photo credit: Namkeen Peshawri