Khwaja sira — also written khawaja sira or khawaja sara — is the word Pakistan's third-gender community uses for itself. It's recorded as the Pakistani counterpart to hijra, reclaimed given its precolonial origins and its more accepted standing in Pakistani society, used in place of Urdu terms considered derogatory. Most khawaja saras are regarded as cultural descendants of the court eunuchs of the Mughal era, and like hijra communities the system runs on gurus and chelas — teachers and disciples — with houses, ritual work, and its own internal categories.
Hijra is the broader term used across South Asia — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and diaspora families — for a related but not identical set of communities, also organised around gurus, houses, ritual work and its own economy and funeral rites. The two are described as cousins rather than the same structure: the internal categories used within khwaja sira communities don't map cleanly onto Indian hijra houses, even though both are closed to outsiders and both require being taken in by a guru rather than simply recognising yourself in the description.
How to tell them apart
- Ask which country or community you mean. Khwaja sira is specifically Pakistani; hijra is the wider regional term covering India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan together.
- The two systems are cousins, not duplicates — a term or category used inside khwaja sira communities may not exist, or may mean something different, inside a given hijra house.
- Khwaja sira carries a specific reclamation history against derogatory Urdu terms and a specific link to Mughal-era court eunuchs; hijra's history and legal status vary somewhat by country.
More likely Khwaja sira
- You're specifically discussing Pakistan's community, its gurus and chelas, and its particular legal history — including the 2009 Supreme Court ruling and the 2018 Transgender Persons Act.
- You have a genuine connection to Pakistan's khwaja sira community and its houses.
- You want the word actively preferred within Pakistan over older derogatory Urdu terms.
More likely Hijra
- You're discussing the wider South Asian phenomenon spanning India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal together, rather than Pakistan specifically.
- You have a genuine connection to a hijra house, most likely in India, with its own gurus and lineage.
- You're comparing hijra to other South Asian third-gender communities as a category, rather than pinpointing one country's specific community and history.
When both words are honestly available
- Both are real communities, not feelings — joined through a guru taking someone in and a house accepting them, not through self-recognition alone.
- Both are closed to outsiders with no connection to South Asia, and both carry their own internal structure, ritual role at weddings and births, and ongoing legal battles for recognition.
What people get wrong
Khwaja sira is just the Urdu word for hijra, meaning exactly the same thing.
They're described as cousin communities rather than identical ones. Khwaja sira has its own precolonial history and internal categories that don't map cleanly onto hijra houses across the border.
Anyone with South Asian heritage can call themselves khwaja sira or hijra if the fit feels right.
Both require being taken in by a guru and accepted into an actual house, not simply recognising yourself in a description — heritage alone doesn't grant either word.
Questions people ask
- Why does Pakistan have its own word instead of just using hijra?
- Khwaja sira was reclaimed partly because of its precolonial roots and its more accepted standing in Pakistani society, and it's used in place of Urdu terms considered derogatory — it carries a specific local history that the broader regional word hijra doesn't capture on its own.
- Is someone khwaja sira automatically also hijra?
- Not necessarily in a straightforward way — the two are cousin structures with categories that don't map cleanly onto each other, so a khwaja sira person in Pakistan isn't simply a hijra person under another name.