Pakistan is not exactly a country very supportive of the rights of the LGBT community: the Criminal Code of the country was written in 1860, a much more conservative time than today. To this day, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people can be punished with imprisonment there, so they often live in hiding.

This may gradually change. In early March, the Pakistani Senate passed a law to guarantee the right to identity of transgender people, that is, who identifies in this way can be recognized with the most suitable gender, without requiring a medical examination.

Following this opening speech, Pakistan recorded its first anchor of a self-declared transgender newscast: Maavia Malik hosted a show on the private channel Kohenoor News. Although it is a private broadcaster, it is a huge advance in a Muslim majority country (96.3% of the total).

Maavia Malik at the head of television news: repercussion was positive

Pakistan follows the direction of India, its neighboring country, which has also advanced in the discussion of including the third gender in society. In India, Padmini Prakash was the first transgender woman to feature a daily newscast in 2014. For Pakistan's roughly 500, 000 transgender people, this is a victory to be celebrated.

“I am extremely happy for this opportunity, ” said Maavia, who until the beginning of the year worked as a model in the country. “My main reason for getting here was to gain visibility and representation from the mainstream transgender community, ” continued the journalist, who already sees change happening in her country.

Fortunately, the population there seems to be accepting the news well. On Twitter, most netizens approved the inclusion. Can this positive fever spread to other so-called more tolerant countries? Let's cheer!

Maavi Malik in a modeling job