In Pakistan, a Leader in Trans Rights, Reality Is Slower to Change Than Law
KARACHI, Pakistan — Four years ago, Pakistan stepped to the forefront of transgender rights worldwide, enacting a law that prohibits discrimination against transgender people in schools, workplaces and public settings, and guarantees them the right to choose their gender on official documents.
Pakistan, a nation known for religious conservatism that still outlaws same-sex relations, joined a small list of countries — only about a dozen at the time, according to the United Nations — with similar transgender protections written into law, raising hopes for a historic turn in the lives of people long forced to survive on society’s fringes.
It meant, for some, that they could emerge from the shadows, a moment captured by the debut that year of Marvia Malik, the country’s first transgender television news anchor.
But in Pakistan, as in other countries around the world, guarantees written into law do not always translate to reality, do not erase prejudices and, most acutely, do not ensure security.
