“Do you see the office card I am wearing? This card has magical powers. If I would stand without this card on a taxi stand to get a cab, people would start identifying me as a transgender again and would assume that either I could be a beggar or some sort of a sex worker standing there to sell myself”, said Reem Shareef in an interview to BBC.
Reem has been appointed recently as a victim support officer in a program called TAHAFFUZ, under the jurisdiction of Rawalpindi police. This has been covered by media and she has been receiving countless best wishes and support. But it isn’t the first time a transgender has been publicized like that. We have seen media covering the first Trans newscaster, the first Trans model and the first ever Trans to work in any program of United Nations, in the same ways. But as soon as they lose the limelight, they are nowhere to be seen, they disappear not only from the media, but also from the posts they had been appointed on. The first Trans newscaster was fired after 6 months of her appointment and the temporary contract of the first Trans officer was not extended by United Nations after one month. These scenarios lead us to a serious and worrisome question, is motivation behind uplifting transgender community is limited to publicity stunts for the organizations who hire them?
In response to this question, Reem admits that exploitation is real and undeniable as she has personally experienced it when organization gave her temporary job in order to extract their share of media spotlight. She says that no matter how independent and educated a transgender gets, he/she will still face the stereotypical judgments from the society and their issues will never be addressed seriously.
ASP civil lines Beenish Fatima played an important role in the appointment of Reem Sharif. According to her, the organization had to take preventive measures to ensure her security even inside the office. In an interview she says that during the process of her appointment, there were many officers who opposed it and questioned the possibility of appointing a transgender in an office. As behaviors of an institute is a reflection of behaviors prevailing in the society as a whole, we can easily predict on what moral and ethical level we are standing as a nation.
If we take a glance at the history of transgender community in Pakistan, we would see that they aren’t considered suitable for any respectable job and are stereotypically seen as dancers and beggars.
In March 2018, a transgender Raheem Dad Khan filed a petition in Peshawar High court complaining how the ads for government jobs vacancies never designate a quota for transgender, due to which, even the educated ones fail to acquire a decent job. In the same year, Chief justice of Supreme Court, Saqib Nisar, ordered the allocation of two Trans persons in Supreme Court.
According to the activists who work for the rights of Transgender community, the percentage of appointment of transgender on government posts is less to nil and in private sector, they are always at risk of contract cancellation.
Reem says that if every single institute of this country creates vacancies for educated Trans, it would help the community to get on better levels in terms of literacy, employment and financial condition. Although the community’s forefathers have always been associated with sex work or beggary but we hope that the circumstances would get better for them as society is progressing, but this too will take a great amount of time as changing thought process of a society is indeed a slow process.
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