DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) – A Bangladeshi satellite TV channel has hired the country’s first transgender news presenter, saying it hopes the appointment will help change society.
Tashnuva Anan Shishir, who previously worked as a rights activist and actress, debuted on Monday, International Women’s Day, on Dhaka’s Boishakhi television. He read a three-minute newsletter and, after finishing, cried as his classmates clapped and clapped.
“I was very nervous, I felt very excited, but I had in mind that I had to overcome this ordeal, this final test,” Shishir, 29, said in an interview on Tuesday.
Born in Kamal Hossain Shishir, she said she found in her early teens that she was trapped in a man’s body and behaved like a woman. She said family members, relatives and neighbors began teasing her and that she was sexually harassed and exploited.
He began to feel it was impossible to continue living and tried to commit suicide, he said.
The worst thing that happened was that her father stopped talking to her, saying it was the reason her family lost face, Shishir said.
“I left home,” he said.
She moved from her family home to a southern coastal district to live a solitary life in the capital, where she underwent hormone therapy, worked for charities, and performed with a local theater group. In January, he began studying public health at a university in Dhaka, which continues alongside his work at the television station.
Bangladesh officially has more than 10,000 transgender people, but activists say the actual number is much larger in the nation than more than 160 million people. The LGBT community faces social isolation, sexual abuse and other forms of harassment. Finding a job is very difficult and many live by asking for or selling sex.
Since 2013, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has allowed transgender people to identify as a separate gender. In 2018 they were granted the right to vote.
Some changes are already visible.
In November, a charity opened Bangladesh’s first Islamic school for the transgender community.
Boishakhi TV said it wanted to be part of the changes and has hired a second transgender person in its theater department.
“Our Prime Minister has taken many steps for transgender people. Encouraged by these steps, we have designated two transgender people. We want society’s attitude to change through these appointments, ”said Tipu Alam Milon, the station’s deputy general manager.