Wafa. Majid. Mano.
These are just some of the names of transgender individuals who have been killed in 2022 alone.
In 2018, Pakistan produced one of the most progressive pieces of legislative framework on transgender rights, to much acclaim. Today, that law is in jeopardy.
Pushback on existing policies is not uncommon in any country in the world; however, what is worrisome is the intensity of the vitriol being faced by Pakistan’s transgender community four years after its anti-discriminatory Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act was made into law.
For a marginalised community to have won out against the odds and in defiance of normative societal treatment was a victory that was perhaps not fully grasped even at that time. Now, the struggle is to keep the legislation as potent and protective of their rights as envisioned.
Continue reading at GenderIT.org.
Image: Photo by Sindh Moorat March on Twitter.