Pakistani transgender declared one of the most successful trans person

Islamabad : Pakistani transgender Aisha Mughal has been declared one of the most successful transgender persons in the world for the year 2020 who made history by representing Pakistan at United Nations as part of the official delegation and becoming a positive example for other community members.

For the first time in the world history, Aisha Mughal represented Pakistan at the United Nations as part of the government delegation that presented the case of human rights in Pakistan effectively before the UN Convention on Elimination of all Kinds of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Committee in Geneva.

The list of transgender, who were able to make history and did incredible things during the last year, was published in an international magazine ‘Pink news.’ The magazine lists down 28 most prominent positive examples of the trans and non-binary people around the world who were able to make difference at global level.

Aisha is a transgender woman, an activist, a qualified researcher and trainer. She is working with the Ministry of Human Rights as UNDP Expert Consultant. She has been working for transgender empowerment, health and rights in Pakistan since 2015 and have achieved several milestones.

Aisha has the honor of becoming Pakistan’s first Transgender lecturer and first Transgender person to serve as a consultant in any Federal Ministry of Pakistan. She has successfully broken the negative stereotypes about her community. She has earned her Mphil and BBA degrees from COMSATS Islamabad and have taught at Quaid-e-Azam, Allama Iqbal Universities and other educational institutions.

Her research paper on Transgender people has been published by Tailor and Francis (impact factor publication) and paper on HIV has been published in Gulf Medical journal. She was the member of National Task Force on Transgender Bill and has played an important role in getting the transgender bill passed by the Government of Pakistan. This Bill is now an Act i.e. Transgender Persons (protection of rights) Act 2018. She has also served as a focal person for transgender rights at National commission for Human Rights (NCHR), Government of Pakistan.

Talking to ‘The News’ about her experience at UN, Aisha said that the world talks about giving equal rights and respect to transgender community but the government of Pakistan implemented that at the highest level by making a transgender part of the official delegation for the first time in the history of the world.

She appreciated the steps taken by the government such as approving the law for the protection of transgender community, making policies and conducting training for the effective implementation of the law. “All these initiatives give me hope for a better future of transgender community in Pakistan,” she said.

“The Governments inclusive approach is obvious. Transgender community members are working in banks, media, NGOs and government departments, the Supreme Court has been proactive in protecting the basic rights of our community, the government is making trans community part of all consultations on policy making and we are representing Pakistan in the official delegation. All these are very positive signs. I agree that we still have a long way to go but let me assure you that we are moving in the right direction,” she said.

Talking about the biggest challenge faced by the transgender people, she said that social acceptance is still the biggest hurdle in mainstreaming the trans community. “Unless families and society accepts them, it will be very difficult for them to benefit from any facility, law or policy made by the government.”

Aisha said that like all other members of her community, she faced discrimination, bullying, sexual harassment and social rejection but it was her faith and optimism that kept her going in the difficult times. She plans to continue her work with the government policy making and implementation and would soon follow her dream of going for PhD in the related field.