When Tashnuva Anan Shishir was growing up in a conservative Muslim family in Bangladesh, she was ridiculed for behavior called too effeminate. “I had to prove that I exist in society.”The journey took her to the internet, where she searched, “Is there anyone like me?”Even after answering the question and coming out as a transgender woman, Ms. Shishir, 29, waged a decades-long quest for acceptance. She has endured harassment and verbal abuse, has been shunned by members of her family and has lived in a slum while penniless. She had been hired by the private television channel Boishakhi TV and read a news segment for the first time on International Women’s Day. The appearance simultaneously vaulted her into the living rooms of millions of her fellow Bangladeshis and onto the global stage as the country’s first transgender news anchor.

Source: International New York Times March 17, 2021 03:11 UTC