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Pakistan: I'm here to change my community's destiny, says Pakistan's first transgender news anchor Marvia

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Marvia says she came in for an interview at Kohenoor News over three months ago and was hired the same day. 

Having aired for the first time 10 years ago, Kohenoor News re-launched on Friday with an elaborate ceremony where it also announced its hiring of transgender individual Marvia Malik as a news anchor – apparently a first in Pakistan’s media history.

The response to this initiative could be gauged from the appreciation it has received on social media with tweets and video messages by scores of people including renowned journalists and TV personalities.

Who is Marvia Malik?

Lahore-based Marvia, not Maavia as she's been called before, is confident, determined, ambitious and goal-oriented.

““There’s nothing transgender people can’t do; we’re educated, have degrees, but no opportunities, no encouragement. I want to change this.” — Marvia Malik”

She has a bachelors degree and has now applied for admission to a masters of arts programme. She claims to have read the basics of journalism and civics and has already dabbled in modelling; she recently made headlines by walking the runway at the PFDC fashion week in Lahore earlier this month.

“I have several modelling offers that I’m considering, but I want to do something for my community that I feel is way behind. So I want to strengthen my people. Everywhere we go, a transgender person is looked down upon. But there’s nothing we can’t do; we’re educated, have degrees, but no opportunities, no encouragement. This is what I want to change. Just as I created history in the fashion industry, I want to do the same in the media industry.”

Marvia says she had made up her mind as a child that she doesn’t want to end up where her fellow transgenders do: dancing on the streets, begging, selling their bodies. She wanted to become either a journalist or a lawyer. Read more via Dawn