He had been teased for belly dancing at school when he was 14. "But there can be many other reasons that have made us the target of a bully in our lives." Saif ur Rehman Raja, a writer born in Pakistan 30 years ago and moved to Italy at 11, with a degree in Pedagogy, said this in front of the students of a middle school in Cagliari, where he was asked to teach a course, organized by Progetto Accresce. And it was as if he had opened a breach: first one, then four other students told their difficult experiences. In front of everyone. One was so tired that she couldn't get out everything that was boiling inside her. "I think kids need and strongly need the ears of us adults," he explained, "they need to be listened to. To be seen. Noticed. Appreciated."
Raja wrote a post to tell his experience in an institute in Cagliari. He, a homosexual, is the author of the book “Hijra”, which he presented at the Pazza Idea festival in Cagliari: he feels «an involuntary stateless person, without a country to welcome him and without a family to recognize him because he is homosexual, or as his father says, a hijra, a half man to be beaten into a manhood».
In the school in the capital he spoke about his novel: "I showed a video of me at 14 years old in which I was belly dancing in public. Behind me, in that video, you can see my schoolmates who, united, turn their backs, touching their right ears to emphasize my homosexuality."
He told the kids in front of him, "that in my case it was belly dancing that made me a target, but there can be many other reasons that made us a target in our lives. One student raised his hand and said that his parents want him to cut his hair and become a boy, not a girl. He was so emotional that he started to cry in front of everyone. In addition to him, 4 other students cried after speaking out."
The post ends with a reflection: Raja thinks that children should be "accompanied without placing the weight of our adult beliefs on their freely growing shoulders."
Enrico Fresu
