There's something about Pinki: Sex, lies and videotape

Is Pinki Pramanik a man or a woman? An eleven member medical board has been set up to determine the “real” gender  of the Asiad gold medalist. On 14 June Pinki Pramanik was arrested by the police after a live-in partner of three years caused a sensation by claiming Pinki was a man and had repeatedly raped her. Since then it’s been a non-stop media circus as the police, the state, the medical establishment and various NGOs have all stepped into uncharted waters, a murky mix of sports, gender, pronouns, sex tests, domestic violence and rape. There’s something about Pinki and no one knows exactly what it is. “The state is in a fix,” says Malobika, the founder of the lesbian rights group, Sappho. “The problem is it cannot think beyond the binary of male and female.” [caption id=“attachment_353831” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Police escort Former Indian athlete Pinki Pramanik (C) to the Barasat District court. AFP”] [/caption] “Our aadhar card will apparently allow us to mark gender as male, female or other,” says Anindya Hajra with Manas Bangla, an advocacy group for men marginalised because of sexuality . “But what will be the marker of other? Do we know that? Is it a chromosomal test? Is it ambiguous genitalia? Or something else?” The case of Pinki Pramanik is a clear example that there is, in fact, very little room for “other” inside our systems. Pinki was kept overnight in the male cell of the police lock-up. She was forced to do an initial sex-determination test without a female medical doctor present. There was no female officer present at the time of her arrest. “They violated every provision laid down in law by the Supreme Court regarding the arrest or custody of women,” says lawyer Aditya Bondyopadhyay. “Once there is a rape charge the opposing party by default has to be a man,” says Malobika. “This is like doing an arithmetic problem where you know the answer beforehand and you fit the sum to the answer.” Now there  is an online petition demanding justice for Pinki Pramanik. It condemns the practice of subjecting people who are “suspected” to be of indeterminate gender to “gender check/tests” and calls it a “gross violation of the individual’s right to dignity and life.” Pinki Pramanik is not the only athlete to have been faced with this issue. Runner Santhi Soundrajan was stripped off her 2006 Doha Asian Games silver medal after failing a gender verification test. In 2007 she attempted suicide by taking a veterinary drug. But the allegation of rape complicates the Pinki story. Women’s groups are in a fix where the person being accused of rape claims the same gender as the alleged victim. In the Indian Penal Code only a man can rape a woman and it requires intercourse. So what’s at stake in the gender test for Pinki Pramanik is not just her medals and records. “If a proper medical test reveals that Pinki is actually a woman, the rape charges would fall,” says Bondyopadhyay. “In that event all that she can be charged with is some archaic nonsense called “Violating the Modesty of a Woman”.” If  this ends up as really a case of domestic violence, she can  be charged with assault or battery. But in all  this hullabaloo one person has disappeared from the story. And that is Pinki Pramanik herself. Sappho members were only able to speak to her for a couple of minutes says Malobika. “Didi, bishwas korun. Aami meye, (Didi, believe me. I am a girl)” Pinki told her at that time. Since then her lawyers have said Pinki does not wish to speak to anyone but her own lawyers and does not require emotional or social support. The police have circulated a video clandestinely shot by Pinki’s accuser that allegedly shows her naked on a bed. Her anguished mother told TOI, “She’s my daughter.” Her local MLA says “I’ve met her many times and she’s a girl.” Unnamed athletes have said they always felt there was something fishy about her. Her coach has gone incommunicado. “The state, the police, even activists, all of us have determined Pinki’s gender,” says Hajra. “ But Pinki has not claimed a trans identity. Or intersexed. We need to not jump the gun. That’s the terrible act of violation here. We are taking over her body and making our own conjectures.” The eleven member board is supposed to give it’s verdict by Tuesday. But that will not resolve all the thorny complicated questions raised by the case of Pinki Pramanik.