Samstag, 12.05.2018 / 11:06 Uhr

Neues Transgender-Gesetz in Pakistan

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Aus dem Netz

"Pakistan's parliament passed a landmark bill on Tuesday that gives the country's transgender citizens fundamental rights.

"This kind of development is not only unprecedented in Pakistani history, but it's one of the most progressive laws in the whole world."

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act allows people to choose their gender and to have that identity recognized on official documents, including national IDs, passports and driver's licenses. The bill also prohibits discrimination in schools, at work, on public modes of transit and while receiving medical care.

The measure also says that transgender people cannot be deprived of the right to vote or run for office. It lays out their rights to inheritance, in accordance with their chosen gender. And it obligates the government to establish "Protection Centers and Safe Houses" — along with separate prisons, jails or places of confinement."

Mehlab Jameel is an activist in Lahore, Pakistan, who helped write the bill. "I heard about this yesterday morning and I was in a state of shock because I never thought something like this could happen within my own life in Pakistan," she told NPR. "This kind of development is not only unprecedented in Pakistani history, but it's one of the most progressive laws in the whole world."

It's also the result of a grassroots effort that began in January 2017, after a senator drafted a bill that Jameel said lacked input from Pakistan's transgender community. "The definition of 'transgender' in that bill was basically based on genitals," she said. And it outlined a "screening committee" that mainly consisted of "a judge, a doctor, a psychiatrist and a bureaucrat" who would decide if a person were transgender.

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