Pakistan opens first school for transgenders

Pakistan’s first school for the transgender community was launched here with its first classes slated to begin from Monday, a media report said.

The school, The Gender Guardian, was inaugurated on Sunday by the NGO Exploring Future Foundation (EFF), which has attempted its first project, Dawn News reported.

“We will be providing skill-based training and curriculum to the transgender community that has enrolled with us,” said Moizzah Tariq, EFF Managing Director.

“Most of them have shown interest in sectors of the fashion industry including learning about cosmetics, fashion designing, embroidery, and stitching while some have also shown interest in graphic designing and culinary skills. Having gained information from them first we designed our courses for them,” the MD added.

How he got the inspiration

Asif Shahzad, the owner of the school, said there are 30 people enrolled in the school.

“I was moved after seeing the bomb blast in Indonesia in 2016 at a transgender school. It was the only such school in any Islamic country in the world. After that we decided to provide them education and bring them to the mainstream,” he said.

The plan is to provide a diploma course so that the students will be able to either work or set up their own businesses, and the NGO will facilitate them with both procedures.

There is no age limit for those who want to get enrolled in the school.

Pakistan’s total population of transgender people reported in the sixth Population and Housing Census in 2017 was 10,418, reports Dawn news.

Punjab province has 64.4 per cent of the country’s transgender population with 6,709 people registered in the category.