{"id":14114,"date":"2025-08-19T22:33:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T16:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/?p=14114"},"modified":"2025-08-19T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T16:55:00","slug":"nepals-transgender-sex-workers-face-violence-and-exploitation-in-legal-vacuum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/nepals-transgender-sex-workers-face-violence-and-exploitation-in-legal-vacuum\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepal\u2019s transgender sex workers face violence and exploitation in legal vacuum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Namaste Shrestha worked as a teacher for five years, giving math and science lessons in private schools for grades three through eight. But as a gay man who exhibited some feminine traits with gestures and enunciation, Shrestha, who now identifies as non-binary and uses she\/her pronouns, felt alienated in her work environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe teachers and principal in every school were my enemies,\u201d she said. \u201cI was tired of teaching because of that bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without other job options, Shrestha turned to sex work. For the past two years, she has worked most nights in Koteshwar, standing on the side of the road in women\u2019s clothing and makeup, along with a few friends who also do sex work. On a good night, Shrestha can make more than Rs2,000, but she often goes home with nothing. Though her dream is to work in a school where LGBTQ youth are welcome, Shrestha, along with other transgender women who do sex work, feels trapped.<\/p>\n

Shrestha is one of many transgender women who, without other work opportunities, has turned to sex work. Alienated from society, Shrestha and other transgender sex workers find themselves stuck in a lawless world filled with conflict, exploitation, and violence\u2014from police officers, clients, and fellow sex workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very complex scene of trans sex work here,\u201d said Sunil Babu Pant, a LGBTQ rights leader and executive director of Mayako Pahichan Nepal.<\/p>\n

Nepali law doesn\u2019t officially recognise sex work. The most recent regulation doesn\u2019t criminalise being a sex worker itself, but it does criminalise soliciting sex work and paying for sex. Although existing as a sex worker is technically not illegal, in practice, sex workers face strict surveillance from police, according to Pant.<\/p>\n

Most often, instead of targeting the clients for paying for sex, police target sex workers. \u201cIt\u2019s never the clients that get arrested, only the sex workers,\u201d Pant said. Transgender sex workers face the most harassment, compared to cis-gender sex workers, because they stand out, Pant said.<\/p>\n

Gyanu Lama, who identifies as \u2018third gender\u2019, has been making a living through sex work for 23 years, and she\u2019s endured multiple beatings from police. In 2003, she was arrested near Ratna Park. Police threw her and her friend in a van, told them to blindfold themselves with their shawls, and beat them until they were unconscious. The police presumed Lama and her friend were dead, and threw the bodies on the side of the road, Lama told the Post.<\/p>\n

Today, when in public, Lama and other third gender or transgender women frequently face harassment from strangers and police. When Shrestha is standing in public with her friends, they fear running into police. \u201cWhen police see us, they beat us with sticks,\u201d Shrestha said.<\/p>\n

Recently, police arrested Shrestha while she was standing on a public road, and detained her for four hours, she said. While she was in custody, police officers insulted Shrestha\u2019s facial hair and asked for the phone numbers of her friends who were also sex workers so they could later request sexual favours from them, she added. The police eventually let Shrestha go, without providing a reason for her arrest.<\/p>\n

Instead of arresting sex workers, sometimes police officers act as clients. When a police officer recently caught Shrestha with a client in a public park at night, instead of arresting Shrestha or the client, the police officer asked Shrestha for sex. Shrestha escaped by lying to the officer; she ran away saying that she needed to get a condom from her friend.<\/p>\n

Even transgender people who don\u2019t do sex work are targeted when they\u2019re in public. \u201cPolice can use public offence law against anybody, but more frequently they use it against transgender people,\u201d Pant said.<\/p>\n

Mouni Maharjan, who ran a campaign to become chairperson of ward 4 of Kirtipur Municipality last December as one of the two first-ever transgender women to run for local public office, often faces harassment and molestation from strangers who wrongfully assume Maharjan is sex worker.<\/p>\n

The violence that transgender people face is often fatal. Honey Maharjan\u2014who ran a campaign alongside Mouni in an attempt to become Kirtipur\u2019s mayor\u2014is now 42 years old and has been a lifelong LGBTQI activist. She\u2019s currently working with Kirtipur-based advocacy organisation Samarpan Savya Samaj Nepal, or Dedication Civilised Society Nepal. Throughout her life, she\u2019s seen her friends get injured and killed as a result of violence from police and clients.<\/p>\n

Fifteen years ago, one of Honey\u2019s friends, Sanjila, who the Post is identifying with a pseudonym, was arrested while walking home at night. The five police officers violently raped her in a public park. The next day, Honey took her friend to the hospital. \u201cAfter the check up, the doctor was also crying because he saw what happened,\u201d Honey said, referring to the wounds on her pelvic region. Her friend survived the rape and received Rs150,000 as compensation from police, but died from HIV roughly six years ago, Honey said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Honey Maharjan and Mouni Maharjan were Nepal\u2019s first transgender people to run for local public office in December 2024. Ellie Davis\/TKP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Nepal police did not respond to the request for comment regarding this incident.<\/p>\n

Another one of Honey\u2019s friends, Azita Bhudel, was gang raped and murdered two years ago at age 36. Bhudel had agreed to meet with a singular client, but was met by a room of six men who raped and killed her.<\/p>\n

At this point, it\u2019s hard for Honey to remember how many friends she has lost to either disease, violence, or suicide. \u201cIn Nepal there are many cases of suicide and people killing transgender people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Because sex workers don\u2019t see police as a source of safety, they have no one to turn to as a protector or mediator in instances of conflict. Often, disagreement between sex workers who are competing to get business from the same clients results in violence. If Shrestha and her friends try to solicit sex in a neighborhood where other sex workers are trying to gain clients, they are met with hostility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith dogs, they have one area, and if another dog comes they will fight and beat that dog,\u201d Shrestha said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same condition with sex work and trans people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this environment, Shrestha often finds herself alone, without anyone to look out for her. When Shrestha and her friends recently got into a violent conflict with another group of sex workers, no one was there to help her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe others beat me very severely and my other friends, no one supported me,\u201d Shrestha said.<\/p>\n

Amid this conflict, within certain communities of sex workers, a power hierarchy forms, in which a group leader dictates where and how the others should engage in sex work. Dinesh Chaudhary works as the Drop in Center Operator at NGO Shanti Nepal, and through his job providing health and legal support to sex workers, he has observed these complicated power dynamics. \u201cThere are different hierarchical groups,\u201d he said. \u201cOne leader coordinates all the sex workers, and gives orders to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shrestha has had to navigate this power structure in order to survive. \u201cIn our area, there is one king or queen,\u201d Shrestha said. \u201cThey make rules about prices for sex and manage if anyone fights.\u201d<\/p>\n

LGBTQ activists agree that legalisation of sex work in Nepal could help transgender sex workers do their work more safely, but few see legalisation as possible in today\u2019s political environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe solution is to amend the law and make sex work legal,\u201d Pant said. If sex work was legalised, he said, sex workers could earn income more safely by working out of their homes or rented rooms, rather than on the street.<\/p>\n

As Pant noted, sex work has a long history in Nepal, and shows no sign of ending. In his view, the country has a choice between letting sex work continue continue illegally or legalising and regulating the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will always have sex work\u2014there will always be people who will choose to come into this profession,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Honey agrees that legalisation could make sex work safer, but she doesn\u2019t think this change will happen anytime soon. \u201cIf they legalise sex work, it will help the community practice safer sex, but the government is still not talking about this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Even if sex work was legalised, LGBTQI advocates emphasise that transgender and third-gender people still need more access to other work opportunities. Changes like workplace protection policies and non-discrimination policies in hiring could help LGBTQI community members find employment, Pant said.<\/p>\n

On top of government policy, for transgender people to find employment outside of sex work, society\u2019s view needs to change, advocates say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be a shift in perspective to see third gender people as productive\u2014the whole attitude is that they aren\u2019t serious and they can\u2019t do jobs,\u201d Pant said.<\/p>\n

Nisha Kuikel, a psychological counselor who works with members of the LGBTQI community at Shanti Nepal, doesn\u2019t think gender identity impacts an employees\u2019 capability. \u201cWe think trans women can only do sex work, that\u2019s not a healthy thought,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy does sexual identity affect work? A person\u2019s hands, eyes, and mind matters, not whether they are LGBTQI or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Ellie Davis is an American Journalist interning at the Post. This is her second time in Nepal, and she enjoys covering climate change, education and social issues.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story has already been published in Kantipur Publication\u2019s English daily, The Kathmandu Post<\/strong><\/a>. We have reprinted it here. \u2013 Editor\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Namaste Shrestha worked as a teacher for five years, giving math and science lessons in private schools for grades three through eight. But as a gay man who exhibited some feminine traits with gestures and enunciation, Shrestha, who now identifies as non-binary and uses she\/her pronouns, felt alienated in her work environment.
\n\u201cThe teachers and principal in every school were my enemies,\u201d she said. \u201cI was tired of teaching because of that bullying.\u201d
\nWithout other job options, Shrestha turned to sex work. For the past two years, she has worked most nights …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":14116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,8,621,490,3,2065],"tags":[1444,2076,157,507],"class_list":["post-14114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-issue","category-human-rights","category-news","category-slider","category-society","category-top-stories","tag-lgbtqi","tag-mayako-pahichan-nepal","tag-sunil-babu-pant","tag-third-gender"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14114"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14121,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14114\/revisions\/14121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}