Marvia Malik, Pakistan’s first transgender TV anchor, escapes assassination bid

Pakistan’s first transgender news anchor survived a gunshot after she was attacked outside her residence in Lahore on Thursday.

Marvia Malik, 26, narrowly escaped an assassination bid while returning from a pharmacy when two attackers opened fire on her, Dawn reported.

Malik told police that she had been receiving threatening calls for some time for raising the voice for the transgender community in Pakistan and cited her “activism” as the reason behind the attack.

Malik, who had moved out of Lahore fearing for her safety, had returned for some days to the city for a surgery when the incident happened, the Dawn report added.

In 2018, Malik made history by becoming the first transgender person to become a news anchor in the Islamic Republic. She was employed by Pakistan-based Kohenoor News but revealed in several interviews that it was not an easy road to land the feat.

“Like other trans people, I did not get any support from my family. On my own, I did some menial jobs and continued my studies. I had always wanted to be a news anchor, and my dream came true when I got selected,” she had said to American broadcaster Voice of America in a telephonic interview.

Through her work, she hopes to change the perception about the transgender community. “If given the chance, transgender people are equally capable of doing anything,” she told news agency AP in a past interview. “Our degrees are of no use…even if we seek jobs, we get rejected due to our identity, I want to change this mindset,” she said.