The cost of life in Pakistan is very cheap
KARACHI: The cost of life in Pakistan is very cheap. It is less than the mobile phone a roadside snatcher seeks to steal. But for some their mere presence is enough to irk people to take their lives — such is the fate of transgender people in Pakistan. And 25-year-old Chanda became the latest victim to such blatant bigotry.
Chanda along with other transgender people was begging for money on the streets of DHA, when men in an SUV threw eggs and water at them. When they retaliated by calling them out for their behaviour, one man opened fire at Chanda and killed her. This isn’t the first time a transgender person has been shot at. Last year, transwoman and activist Alesha was shot six times in Peshawar and owing to the ill-treatment at the hands of the hospital staff she succumbed to her injuries.
Being a transgender person in Pakistan is worse than being a woman — although neither are given rights and respected, transgender people are also denied basic necessities, leading them to only resorting to earn through begging, dancing and prostitution. Ironically, all three are frowned upon by the ‘moral’ elites of society. The same elites who are immune to the law. So it is no surprise that the unidentified men in an SUV in Karachi’s most posh localities, DHA, murdered Chanda and will be let off even if they are caught.
Salma Hadi
Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2017.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
