*Karachi: *As the first transgender news anchor in Pakistan, Marvia Malikis proud to be at the forefront of changing attitudes in her country butshe says there is a long way to go.
The news of her first appearance on local channel Kohenoor TV on Saturdaywent viral on social media and was just days after she became the firsttransgender model on the catwalk at the annual Pakistan Fashion DesignCouncil fashion show.
Her catapult into the spotlight came after transgender activist ZaraChangezi was named as star of a love film, the Senate passed a bill toprotect transgender people, and a Pakistani province agreed to an X genderon driving licences.
Malik, 21, said she had lost count of the positive telephone calls andmessages she had received for her new role which was a major contrast toprevious years when she battled to survive.
“I got a lot of appreciation from those associated with the fashionindustry when I did catwalk modelling two weeks back, and now this … it’squite overwhelming,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“I was thrown out after (10th grade) after which I joined a beauty salon,earned just about enough to put myself through college, but it was noteasy. My story is no different from that of a hijra on the street you seebegging.”
Many “hijras” – which includes transvestites, transsexuals and eunuchs – inPakistan, as well as other South Asian nations such as India andBangladesh, are attacked, murdered, raped or forced to work as sex workers,dancers, or beggars.
For although transgender people technically enjoy better rights in Pakistanthan in many other nations, in practice they are marginalized and facediscrimination in education and jobs.
However campaigners said there were signs of progress in the conservativeSouth Asian nation where homosexuality is a crime.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2009 hijras could get national identity cards asa “third sex” and last year the government issued its first passport with atransgender category.
The transgender community was counted in the national census for the firsttime last year, recording 10,418 in a population of about 207 millionalthough many said this was too low. Charity Trans Action Pakistanestimates there are at least half a million transgender people in thecountry.
X MARKS TRANSGENDER
Earlier this month the Senate unanimously approved a bill to protect therights of transgender people which, once passed by both houses, meanstransgender people will no longer have to appear before a medical board toconfirm their gender.
Meanwhile the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – one of Pakistan’s fourprovinces where there was a spate of attacks on transgender people in 2016- issued driving licences to transgender people marked with an X in gender.
“Getting a driving permit will not only be a proof of identity but openanother livelihood avenue, for instance, finding employment in cabcompanies,” said Qamar Naseem of Peshawar-based Blue Veins that lobbies fortransgender people. – Agencies