that in a such an openly corrupt society, people seem to have such low thresholds of embarrassment - it's speaks not of double standards but of triple and even quadruple ones.

As for the tolerance of the transgendered - it's abysmal.

It seems that in small societies people who are different are integrated sometimes revered for bringing different gifts with their differentness; as soon as the society grows it tends to become male dominated and then minorities become alienated. Once religion becomes involved, the alienation seems to become persecution.

Perhaps they need to consider that transgenderism appears to be a part, albeit a minority one, of the general human condition and was presumably here long before the great religions, and will be here long after they've gone - in fact as long as there are humans.

Is CNN and those of us who watch this clip, just as bad as the Pakistani society who see these people going about their daily work, as curiosities? Just a thought.

Angharad

The BBC did something about this a while back if memory serves. All this is doing is reinforcing the negative stereotype of transgender people in Pakistan as different and something to be shunned. It's sad on so many levels and it's not going to give wider society there a push towards developing a properly progressive human rights framework.