Ggids

For some, gender is fixed, male and female. We in the West now recognize that is not necessarily so, there are others, usually fitting within the LGBTQ spectrum. That is us, but actually there are other cultures who more formally recognize genders going beyond male and female.

• The Hijra of South Asia, mainly India. They do suffer from marginalization, but since 2014 have been given some recognition when India, Bangladesh and Nepal recognized the rights of non-binary people.
• The Bugis of Sulawesi recognize 3 genders besides male and female, Calalai who are women exhibiting male characteristics, Calabai who are men exhibiting feminine characteristics, and Bissu who can be either and are the priests. They have had to adapt to Islam, but have still managed to retain their cultural norms.
• Muxe among the Zapotec people in the Oaxaca region of Mexico who are men who have female identity.
• The Sekrata among the Sakalawa people in Madagascar who are male who when they are perceived as having feminine traits as children are raised as girls and recognized as a separate gender.
• The Two-Spirit people among several North American indigenous cultures, people who are recognized to embody both male and female spirits.

It’s comforting to know that some cultures think outside the box!

Tala and Farah Mousa have won The Earth Prize from The Earth Foundation, a Geneva non-profit who has been giving prizes to people age 13 to 19.  Not only have the young sisters created Build Hope, Palestine, by finding a way to make bricks out of the rubble around them, in doing so, their work has, in the foundation’s founder’s words, empowered others. Without machinery or special equipment, they have taken the rubble, sifted it, mixed it with clay, ash or glass powder, shaped it into bricks and let them dry. The results are non-weight bearing blocks, blocks that are reusable in rebuilding many aspects of their communities.  The plan is for them to teach 100 young people, who would then teach others so that the numbers of people able to make bricks from ruble would exponentially grow. As it turned out, they had to be relocated and could not take their prototypes with them. But the method they have created stays and can now be shared with others.

Tala and Farah are also inspiring people like me—and hopefully whomever reads about them— to see not only what hope and resilience and strength really are, but also how human beings live up to the symbol of the phoenix rising from the ashes.