{"id":122,"date":"2019-01-20T06:07:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T06:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/?p=122"},"modified":"2019-01-20T06:20:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T06:20:08","slug":"pakistans-first-transgender-newscaster-marvia-malik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/?p=122","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan’s first transgender newscaster-Marvia Malik"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

\"Meet<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

“I\u00a0knew I was different\u00a0ever since I was\u00a0four years old,\u201d says\u00a0broadcast journalist\u00a0Marvia Malik, 21, who\u00a0grew up in a conservative\u00a0joint family in Lahore,\u00a0Pakistan. \u201cBefore I even\u00a0turned 10, I wanted to\u00a0express what I felt inside.\u00a0So, I began calling myself\u00a0a girl. But my family was\u00a0strict and wanted me to\u00a0behave like a boy,\u201d she\u00a0says, admitting that she\u00a0has only visited them\u00a0twice since she was thrown\u00a0out of her home over a\u00a0year ago, for refusing to\u00a0conform. By this time, she\u00a0had embraced her gender\u00a0identity, wearing lipstick,\u00a0and speaking Urdu in the\u00a0feminine tense.<\/p>\n

At school and\u00a0at college, she was\u00a0frequently taunted,\u00a0though her teachers, she\u00a0says, were supportive.\u00a0When she completed her\u00a0matriculation exams,\u00a0Malik decided she\u2019d\u00a0had enough, and that it\u00a0was time for change. \u201cI realized I had to make\u00a0a choice or I would end up depressed and\u00a0suicidal. I wanted to\u00a0prove myself and earn a\u00a0dignified income.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marvia-Malik-trans-news-caster\"<\/a>She moved in with a\u00a0transgender friend and\u00a0earned a BA in journalism\u00a0and civics from Lahore\u2019s\u00a0Punjab University, while\u00a0studying make-up and\u00a0working at a local salon\u00a0to support herself. Upon\u00a0graduation, she began\u00a0looking for jobs \u2014 and\u00a0landed her first and\u00a0current one with Kohinoor\u00a0News, a small Lahore based\u00a0TV channel, after\u00a0passing her screen test\u00a0with flying colors. \u201cAt\u00a0my interview, they asked,\u00a0\u2018Why are you interested\u00a0in working here? Don\u2019t\u00a0transgender people\u00a0just beg and dance for money?\u2019\u201d After three months of training, she\u00a0began her career on March\u00a023, 2018 \u2014 incidentally,\u00a0on Pakistan Resolution\u00a0Day. Soon, news of her\u00a0employment went viral.<\/p>\n

Malik is currently\u00a0undergoing hormonal\u00a0treatment as she\u00a0transitions, and has set\u00a0her sights on the UK for\u00a0the gender reassignment\u00a0surgery. She is now\u00a0looking forward to doing\u00a0an MA in journalism,\u00a0even as she fights for\u00a0transgender rights as\u00a0the president of Lahore\u2019s Khawaja Sira Society,\u00a0an NGO that supports\u00a0transgender rights. The\u00a0future might even see her\u00a0dip her toes in politics \u2014 after all, transgender\u00a0candidates have been\u00a0running for elections in\u00a0the country since 2013.\u00a0\u201cThings are changing.\u00a0I\u2019d like to run for a\u00a0parliamentary seat one\u00a0day and fight for equal rights,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I\u00a0knew I was different\u00a0ever since I was\u00a0four years old,\u201d says\u00a0broadcast journalist\u00a0Marvia Malik, 21, who\u00a0grew up in a conservative\u00a0joint family in Lahore,\u00a0Pakistan. \u201cBefore I even\u00a0turned 10, I wanted to\u00a0express what I felt inside.\u00a0So, I began calling myself\u00a0a girl. But my family was\u00a0strict and wanted me to\u00a0behave like a boy,\u201d she\u00a0says, admittingRead the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kinner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127,"href":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinnerwelfareboard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}