(Marvia Malik/Twitter)
The first transgender female anchor on Pakistan’s independently owned and operated Kohenoor News Network escaped serious injury after two gunmen opened fire as she was returning to her residence after a trip to a local pharmacy.
Marvia Malik, who had made history in the conservative Muslim-majority nation as the first openly trans person on a television channel in 2018, told police investigators that she believed her activism for LGBTQ rights was a “major factor” behind the assassination attempt citing several threatening calls prior to the attempt on her life Feb. 24.
Malik, who moved out of Lahore, Pakistan fearing for her safety based on previous threats, returned for a surgery only days before the attempt on her life happened.
LGBTQ rights in Pakistan are still severely restricted with homosexuality being outlawed and punishable by prison sentences. Conversion therapy is often a prescribed treatment.
In 2018, the Pakistani government passed a law under Section 377 of the country’s colonial-era penal code that made same-sex marriage punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
In addition to the criminalization of LGBTQ Pakistanis, the community also continues to face discrimination and violence that family members often perpetuate.
Many LGBTQ people face verbal, emotional and even physical abuse from their families due to societal and religious pressures. This can lead to them dropping out of school or foregoing higher education altogether.
Discrimination in the workplace and education system forces many LGBTQ Pakistanis to remain in the closet, and those who are out often cannot find work or continue their education. Access to health care — including testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and infection — is an ongoing challenge.
A law that permits transgender people to legally change the gender on their national ID cards and other official documents, allows them to vote and bans discrimination based on gender identity in employment, health care, education and on public transportation took effect in 2021. Pakistan’s Supreme Court in 2009 ruled in favor of recognizing trans people as a third gender on identity cards. Discrimination against trans Pakistanis remains pervasive in spite of these advances.
In an interview with fashion magazine ELLE, Malik, then 21, who had previously worked as a model noted that she moved in with a transgender friend and earned a BA in journalism and civics from Lahore’s Punjab University, while studying make-up and working at a local salon to support herself.
Upon graduation, she began looking for jobs — and landed her first and current one with Kohinoor News, a small Lahore based TV channel, after passing her screen test. “At my interview, they asked, ‘Why are you interested in working here? Don’t transgender people just beg and dance for money?’”
After three months of training, she began her career on March 23, 2018 and news of her employment went viral, she told the worldwide women’s magazine.
“Like other trans people, I did not get any support from my family. On my own, I did some menial jobs and continued my studies. I had always wanted to be a news anchor, and my dream came true when I got selected,” she said to Voice of America in a interview.
Speaking with the BBC she said: “Our community should be treated equally and there must not be any gender discrimination. We should be given equal rights and be considered ordinary citizens, instead of third-gender.”
She added: “My family knows I have modelled and they know that I work as a newscaster. It’s the age of social media and there’s nothing that my family doesn’t know. But they have still disowned me.”
Pakistan is a country that is notorious for its human rights violations, and the LGBTQ community is one of the most vulnerable groups in the country. Despite the challenges, the community is fighting for their rights and slowly making progress.
Since homosexuality is illegal in Pakistan, the LGBTQ community is often forced into hiding. This makes it difficult to estimate the size of the community, but it is thought that there are tens of thousands of LGBTQ people living in Pakistan. Many of them live in wealthy areas of Karachi, the country’s largest city, without fear, as do community members in similar parts of Pakistan.
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: nationallgbtmediaassociation.com.
