Hijra

¹ American  

[hij-ruh] / ˈhɪdʒ rə /

Also Hijrah.

noun

(sometimes lowercase)

1. the flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution a.d. 622: regarded as the beginning of the Muslim Era.

2. the Muslim Era itself.

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hijra ² American  

[hij-ruh] / ˈhɪdʒ rə /

noun

1. a person whose gender identity is neither male nor female, typically a person who was assigned male at birth but whose gender expression is female.

2. a person who is transgender.

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hijra British  

/ ˈhɪdʒrə /

noun

1. (in India) a person who adopts a gender role that is neither male nor female

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Etymology

Origin of Hijra¹

From the Arabic word hijrah flight, departure

Origin of hijra¹

First recorded in 1835–40; from Hindi: “eunuch, hermaphrodite”

Example Sentences

In Pakistan and Bangladesh, some people identify as Hijra, which means they have both male and female traits.

From Salon

It presents her signature aesthetic — instinctively composed black-and-white images that always feel close yet never prying — and the themes and characters that recur in her oeuvre, like her friend Mona Ahmed, a hijra, or third-gender person, who lived in a Delhi cemetery.

From New York Times

Aruvi, a transgender person in Hyderabad, started a “transkitchen” with the help of three friends from the queer community, who cooked food and delivered it to the hijra community and other marginalized groups.

From Seattle Times

The hijra in India, whose intersex nature was long revered under Hinduism and who were given a place of honor in the Mughal courts from the 16th to the 19th centuries, now live mostly in poverty, excluded from mainstream society.

From New York Times

In Islamic history this move to Aksum became known as the first Hijra or migration.

From BBC