Shahzadi Rai: 'If we ask for bread or help, people say have sex with us
"When we step out of the house, ask someone for food or help, people demand to have sex with us. In the early days of my life, I used to live only through sex work.
Shahzadi Rai, a transgender rights activist in Karachi, has been the target of constant criticism and contempt on social media these days.
"If she didn't leave home, she wouldn't be alive"
Shahzadi Rai was born in Karachi and belongs to a Sindhi family. According to Shahzadi, her family has shown indifference to her and she was separated from her family at the age of sixteen and seventeen. According to him, if she was not away from her family, she might not be alive today.
She says that "so-called honor killing is a major problem in Pakistan." This is not only women's problem but also our problem. We are killed in the name of honor.
Talking about her past, Shahzadi Roy said that the early days of the life of transgender women are very painful.
It is so painful that we cry while describing it. I struggled for everything, including a job, more than any man or woman, and completed my studies with great difficulty.
'Your gender is an embarrassment to us'
Shahzadi Rai says that after leaving her family, she was supported by the transgender community.
The lives of transgender people are different from ordinary people. When people don't accept us, we create our own world and support each other.
The Shahzadi says that in the early days, she used to help children with autism in an institution but was kicked out and told that you are a shame to her because of herbased toward gender, which broke her heart.
The same person who fired him met ten years later at a United Nations meeting. Obviously luck and time change, I said today I am sitting in front of the person who fired me on the basis of gender.
When he had to appear before the sector in chargein every night
Shahzadi Rai left home but the environment outside was not favorable for her. She explains that she used to live towards Sohrab Goth, which is considered a dangerous area of the city.
When Shahzadi Rai left there and came to the sector area, she faced difficulties there as well.
“The sector in charge made my life very difficult, I had to appear before him every night. First endured the violence of the house, and endured the violence of the area. After this thing happened again, I asked myself if this wasto life. Am I here for this life? From here I started activism and raised my voice against all this.
If a transgender needs to make an identity card, he comes to me. Many transgenders are tending to study, so if anyone wants admission in the university, I will contact them. If someone is tortured, they contact me because I am the focal person of the police. I don't have enough resources to provide shelter to them, but I give them shelter in my house for some time till their problem is solved.
The fourth attack and bottles of acid
Shahzadi Roy recently shared a video in which she claimed that an attack was attempted on her. Provincial Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon took notice of this and the suspect was arrested.
Shahzadi Roy says that this was the fourth attack in which people reached the door. Shahzadi Rai made this video and put it on social media so that people know how she is being harassed.
According to Shahzadi Rai, after some time the man came with one of his companions and brought a bottle of acid with him.
Shahzadi told that she was not present at home but her video was taken and she also put that video on social media after which an FIR was filed and the man was arrested.
"Taking a bottle of acid is no joke," she says. If they had been thrown away, some people would have said that transgender people are like that.
Another video of Shahzadi Rai that she recorded from the airport, in which she claimed that an airline stopped her from traveling, also went viral.
"The airline staff took my boarding pass and tore it up and said you're not allowed, your gender is X."
"First liberal women and now we infidels"
When the Khawajsara Act was amended in the Senate and other religious parties including Jamaat-e-Islami raised objections, the first 'Moort March' was taken out in Karachi under the supervision and leadership of Shahzadi Rai. She says that the main purpose of this march was to make a place for herself in society.
Look at the situation in Pakistan, the economy is in a state of ruin. We're going to default. In this situation, our political parties and parliament, and and human rights committee are commenting on us.
Shahzadi Rai says that here religion is used for politics. "Early liberal women looked like infidels and now we transgenders look like infidels."
"I have been subjected to a campaign of contempt under a systematic campaign," she says. My character is defamed, my videos, and and photos are all being targeted. I think this is being done as part of a systematic plan so that we shut up and don't talk about transgender rights.
The Shahzadi describes herself as a revolutionary spirit. She says that she will not leave Sindh, she will not leave Pakistan. We have to stay here and not live with compromise.
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