Transgender Pakistanis are demanding protection after a recent killing.
A transgender woman named Nazo was shot dead and then dismembered last week. She was allegedly killed by two attackers, both men, in the suburbs of the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday.
The police arrested the two suspects as they were moving the body parts.
The pushback from trans Pakistanis has been immediate and fierce. After the recent killing, dozens of trans activists gathered in Peshawar, outside of that city’s Press Club, demanding access to protection, respect, and rights.
The Transgender Association’s president is Farzana Jan. Jan was the first Pakistani transgender person to obtain a passport that indicated a gender other than male or female.
Jan said that sixty-two transgender individuals have been killed in the last three years in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
According to the Houston Chronicle, an estimated 478 attacks have been reported to the authorities.