Portrait
Died
2 February 2025Rangamati District, Bangladesh
Hijra community leaderBangladesh

Shila

A leader of the Hijra community in south-eastern Bangladesh, she was murdered in her home in 2025 – her killers have not been convicted.

Shila came from Hathazari near Chattogram and lived alone in a small rented house in Betbunia in the Rangamati district of south-eastern Bangladesh. She belonged to the Hijras, the centuries-old community of trans and intersex people in South Asia, and was regarded as a leader of her community in the region.

On the evening of 3 February 2025 neighbours broke into her house because nobody had seen her all day. They found her dead on her bed, with her throat cut and stab wounds to her abdomen. According to residents and the police, five people had visited her house late on the night of 2 February; the police assumed she had been killed that night.

The murder came at a turbulent time. After the fall of the Hasina government in the summer of 2024, the situation became noticeably more dangerous for queer people in Bangladesh. The organisation JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France documented 260 incidents of human rights violations against LGBTQI+ people in 2025, a sharp increase on previous years; trans and gender-diverse people were targeted most often.

Since 2013 the state has officially recognised Hijras, but this recognition has brought little protection in everyday life. Sex between men remains a crime under the colonial Section 377, and there is no comprehensive protection against discrimination. Many victims do not go to the police for fear of retaliation. No conviction of Shila’s killers is known.

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