A wave of violence has left transgender people afraid to go out, as experts say the global rise of far-right ideology is fuelling transphobia
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t was past midnight but Zehrish Khanzadi and Bindiya Rana were still up, drinking tea, when the doorbell rang. Within seconds of Rana unlocking the door remotely from the kitchen, three shots rang out. “The men fled and she narrowly escaped all three bullets,” Khanzadi says of her colleague and housemate.
Both trans women work for the Gender Alliance Interactive (GIA), an organisation that advocates for transgender rights, Rapa as its head and Khanzadi as a rights activist.
By morning, they had filed a formal police complaint against the unknown assailants. As an activist Khanzadi is acutely aware of the risks that trans communities in Pakistan face but she never expected to become a victim herself in the safety of her own home in Karachi. “Those who protect others are now under attack,” she says.
