Hira Mandi

Hira Mandi (literally Diamond Market) is the tangled maze of backstreets and alleys hat is the red light district of Lahore (the second largest city in Pakistan) and is as famous in South Asia as the Amsterdam red light district is throughout the West. Hira Mandi is a portrait of the unknown world of Pakistan's transsexual and homosexual subculture. Hijars, best defined as 'neither men nor women', are important in Lahore. They are men born as transgender, hermaphrodite or of female gender, trapped inside male bodies. These boys perform in dancing groups at weddings, in the streets or in private houses. Hira Mandi provides refuge to homosexual men and allows young boys and adult men to develop friendships and sexual relations with other males, whereas adolescnt boys and girls literally risk their lives if they were to develop these informal relations elsewhere.