Join the University of Iowa (UI) South Asian Studies Program, an International Programs affinity group, as they host a webinar featuring Dr. Enakshi Nandi, sociolinguist and language instructor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India, and Tayyaba Rafiq, a professional linguist at the Center for Social Justice in Lahore, Pakistan, who will discuss the clandestine intra-community languages or linguistic codes used by trans feminine communities known as kothi/koti, hijra, and/or khwaja sira in India and Pakistan. Saptarshi Bairagi, Dalit trans-queer-koti anthropologist, will be responding to the speakers.

In this panel, the speakers, both linguists, will contextualize the socioeconomic conditions that lead to the development, transmission and maintenance of hijra-koti languages, discuss the significance of the element of secrecy in manifesting the above processes, compare the linguistic practices and attitudes shared by hijras and kotis across South Asia from Lahore (Pakistan) to Kalyani (India), and analyze the techniques adopted by the community to subvert rigid binary conceptions of gender and sexuality.