The news of her first appearance on local channel Kohenoor TV on Saturday went viral on social media and was just days after she became the first transgender model on the catwalk at the annual Pakistan Fashion Design Council fashion show. For although transgender people technically enjoy better rights in Pakistan than in many other nations, in practice they are marginalized and face discrimination in education and jobs. However campaigners said there were signs of progress in the conservative South Asian nation where homosexuality is a crime. Charity Trans Action Pakistan estimates there are at least half a million transgender people in the country. Meanwhile the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - one of Pakistan’s four provinces where there was a spate of attacks on transgender people in 2016 - issued driving licences to transgender people marked with an X in gender.

Source: New Strait Times March 26, 2018 16:18 UTC