The Feminist Collective and Khwaja Sira Society has drafted the Transgender Rights Protection Bill, 2017 to pursue the legal conversation against gender disparity with the lawmakers.
The proposed draft was presented before the task-force created on the matter under the Federal Ombudsman of Pakistan, on 3rd and 4th July, 2017. The Feminist Collective announced on social media that the members of the task force approved all the recommendations of the drafting committee and presented the Bill before the Senate on 7th July, 2017.
The country’s Supreme Court has in recent years taken steps towards recognizing their basic rights. In 2009, the court ruled that “hijras” – which include transvestites, transsexuals and eunuchs – could get national identity cards as a “third sex.”
In face, a few weeks prior, Pakistan’s transgender community welcomed the government’s decision to issue a passport to prominent transgender activist Farzana Riaz with an “X” to symbolize the third sex printed under the gender category of the travel document.
Since 2009 it has also declared equal rights for transgender people, including the right to inherit property and assets, the right to vote and to be counted as a separate category in the country’s national census.
The support for the rights of the transgender community in Pakistan is ever increasing with said supporters’ presence on social media, who extended their help to the communities cause.
The support for the rights of the transgender community in Pakistan is ever increasing with said supporters’ presence on social media, who extended their help to the communities cause.
The Transgender Rights Protection Bill, 2017 Presented Before The Senatehttps://t.co/05fip6DFep via @APFA_tweets
— Shumaila H. Shahani (@ShahaniSays) July 9, 2017
Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity if not love. Very well written Purniya?
Read here?https://t.co/6QR1DbvGsj— Mehak K. Sheikh (@MehakSheikhh) July 6, 2017
Pakistan granted first gender-neutral passport. The “third gender” passports will now be available for trans and non-binary people.
— Jhawn Paul (@PinkSheepNews) June 27, 2017
The state of Pakistan recognizes its transgender citizens by issuing the first ever gender neutral Passport pic.twitter.com/oNzZe40lTe
— Libra (@MhammadAwais) June 26, 2017
is hoped that the Transgender Rights Protection Bill becomes law whilst the struggle against discrimination continues.