I could not have read this headline at a better time. A few days back I was out on the roads when a transgender came up to me and started blessing me.
When I thanked her she gave me a big smile and a hug (!). I handed her a 50 rupees note and she thanked me profusely, in her soft spoken and very well-mannered tone.
I was sad to see that this beautiful woman, who spoke perfectly and could even speak a little English, had to survive by asking for money on the roads. Our society is still unable to give the right amount of respect to those who have a different sexual orientation than what we mostly understand and know of.
The reason I mentioned her here is that being gay, lesbian or transgender does not change you as a person, and there is nothing that someone who has a different sexual orientation cannot do as well as you, much as what Marvia Malik has proven recently.
Image Credit: thelogicalindian
In a first ever for our neighbouring country that still discriminates against transgender people, Marvia Malik, who was a model earlier and is a journalism graduate, has been taken on board by a private Pakistani news channel Kohinoor as a news anchor. After undergoing training for three months, she hosted her first show on Friday.
Marvia told interviewers that she broke down in tears when she heard she was offered the job. Her family, that was aware of her modelling and also of the fact that she is a transgender, are now aware of the fact that she has been hired as Pakistan’s first ever transgender news anchor, but they have still disowned her and want nothing to do with her.
She is positive about the change her new role will bring for the people of her community. Marvia feels that people still look at a transgender as a beggar who dances for money but that with the right opportunity, a transgender can take up any role in society like anyone else.
The TV station owner said that Marvia was given the job purely on merit basis and not with the thought of breaking a taboo or making a point.
But it surely did make a point and that too at a global level.
Image Credit: surakita
Interestingly, India also got its first transgender TV anchor in the year 2014 in the form of Padmini Prakash, who appeared on a Tamil language TV channel each evening to present a news program. She too had been disowned by her family but went on to create a global stir.
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