The curious support for transgender rights in Pakistan.

Pakistani transgenders dance during a rally in Karachi on December 7, 2010. The transgender community, locally called hijra, hailed the order of Pakistan's supreme court asking the government to add a separate gender column in the national identity card to identify transgendered, transvestites and eunuchs as citizens of Pakistan. AFP PHOTO/Asif HASSAN (Photo credit should read ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images)

A member of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F), one Pakistan’s hardline religious parties, this month proposed the country’s first piece of legislation aimed at protecting the rights of transgendered people. The Transgender Bill 2017, which is expected to pass in the coming weeks, represents the most eye-catching sign of an awkward alliance between Pakistan’s increasingly visible transgender community and its fundamentalist religious wing.