As the transgender war plays out online in Britain, a far bloodier turn of events is unfolding in Pakistan. This month, transgender activist Gul Panra was shot dead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital Peshawar. Another transgender woman, named Tariq alias Chahat, who had joined Panra to perform at a wedding, was also wounded in the attack. Panra’s death adds to the grim toll of at least 69 transgender persons who have been killed in this province alone in the past five years. Yet many of those fighting the gender wars online are too busy calling out ‘Terfs’ to speak out on behalf of those dying thousands of miles away.
Despite the lack of support from abroad, Pakistan’s transgender community has nonetheless managed to achieve hard-fought successes. The landmark Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act granted the community basic human rights in 2018; while the national census counted transgender people for the first time in 2017.
In some ways then, Pakistan has been ahead of the curve on gender rights: in 2012, Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) first issued identity cards allowing the transgender community to identify as a third
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