Pakistan’s trans community fights hate, says bigots ‘afraid of joy’

“In recent years millennial and Gen Z queer people in Pakistan have carved out a vibrant digital space for themselves on TikTok, Instagram and X, where they showcase their activism and offer glimpses into their personal lives”

KARACHI, Pakistan – Clad in a Barbie-pink shalwar kameez, influencer and doctor Mehrub Moiz Awan reels off endless examples of harassment she’s received since becoming the sharp-tongued figurehead of Pakistan’s queer community.

A growing and highly organized digital hate campaign driven by the religious right has put trans people at risk — both of losing their legal rights and their lives.

“It became quite vicious where there were death threats against me, there were attacks on me,” Awan told AFP from a fellow activist’s crowded apartment in Pakistan’s megacity of Karachi.

“I had to file FIRs (police complaints) and applications for police protection.”

The digital hate campaign started shortly after Awan was disinvited from a TedX panel at a private school in August last year following complaints from parents.

When she called out the decision, local celebrities — including a prominent fashion designer — accused her of promoting an LGBTQ agenda in a country where homosexuality has been criminalized since colonial times.

Since then, a variety of players from Pakistan’s religious right have converged into a mainstream anti-queer movement in the conservative Muslim country.

They include the leaders of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami political party, podcasters, influencers from a religious collective called the Youth Club, and an online group known as Mothers for Pakistan.

Blasphemy allegations

Tactics used by the campaign include hardline Islamic rhetoric, harassment, cyberbullying, and doxing in the form of leaks of personal data, including pre- and post-transition pictures of activists.

Outright accusations of blasphemy — allegations that can lead to mob killings in Pakistan — have also been used.

Although exact figures are not available due to severe underreporting, human rights groups such as Amnesty International say there has been a concerning rise in violence against trans people in Pakistan.

In February, Marvia Malik, Pakistan’s first