Economic empowerment essential to bring transgender community into mainstream: Rani Khan

• Trans-social activist Rani Khan believes economic empowerment of transgender community is necessary.
• This empowerment can bring them to national mainstream, she says.
• She says community is forced to indulge in unwanted professions.

Trans-social activist Rani Khan on Wednesday said that the economic empowerment of the transgender community, who are the most vulnerable as they are not even accepted by their parents, is a must to bring the transgender community into the national mainstream.

She said in an exclusive talk with APP that they were neither provided equal rights nor treated humanely by their kith and kin. This is what forced them to indulge in unwanted professions that were socially and religiously forbidden, such as begging, dancing, and sex work, she explained.

Rani Khan told APP that she was building a Madrassah "Al Fatima tuz Zahra" on a four-marla plot in the Federal Capital’s Mehrabadi area, where 28 trans-women had already enrolled.

Besides getting religious education, the students were earning livelihoods by setting up makeshift stalls in the main markets of the G-11, F-11, and F-10 sectors.

Some of her colleagues sold vegetables and fruits in the streets of the capital on pushcarts, she added.

Khan said that her main objective was to bring the transgender community into the mainstream of society through economic empowerment.

She urged the people to give Sadqa-e-Fitr and Zakat for the smooth running of the Madrassah’s financial affairs.

Kiran, a transwoman who sells toys at G-11 Markaz, told APP that she was trying to become a responsible citizen of society. She appreciated the positive response both from the public and the district administration, who, she said, we're providing all possible assistance for the well-being of the transgender community.