Trans activists launch transgender rights manifesto in Pakistan
Pakistan’s trans community has launched a manifesto to help secure more social and political rights in the country.
The Transgender and Intersex Community Election Manifesto lists 33 demands in order to secure more transgender rights for people in Pakistan.
Vying for quotas so that transgender people can be represented in politics, asking for the right to participate in political demonstrations, as well as a review of the legal frameworks that discriminate against gender minorities are listed in the document, which was published in The Express Tribune.
Pakistani eunuchs and transgender people demonstrate for their rights in the city of Peshawar on July 11, 2011. Pakistan’s eunuchs are traditionally paid to help celebrate the birth of a son, or to dance at weddings or living on the streets begging or prostituting themselves. But in Muslim Pakistan, where sexual relations outside marriage are taboo and homosexuality is illegal, eunuchs are also treated as sex objects and often become the victims of violent assault. AFP PHOTO/A. MAJEED (Photo credit should read A.MAJEED/AFP/Getty Images)
In a bid to secure more rights for trans people in Peshawar region, trans campaigner Rahim Dada Khan has filed a petition to the High Court to require the government to introduce a quota for trans people to get government jobs.
The Senate has recently voted through a spate of amendments in order to protect transgender rights.
Rape of a transgender person would also come with a death sentence or jail of up to 25 years, and the eviction of a transgender tenant will result in a jail term between six months and two years imprisonment or fine up to Rs100,000 (US$904).
The group that took the Boy Scouts oath (Trans Action Pakistan/Facebook)
“The transgender community is opposed to the idea of setting up a medical board that should determine their gender fearing that they might be subjected to embarrassment and harassment,” said Chairperson of the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights Senator Nasreen Jalil.
“The bill provides protection to the members of the transgender community and prohibits attack on their self-esteem and mistreatment.”
Marvia Malik presented Kohenoor News in Lahore this week, making it a landmark moment in the country’s broadcasting history.
“I got a lot of appreciation from those associated with the fashion industry when I did catwalk modelling two weeks back, and now this … it’s quite overwhelming,” Malik said to Reuters.
Pakistan legally recognised transgender people as a third gender in 2012.
