Sindh Moorat March.

In a first, a protest took place on Sunday in Karachi's Frere Hall where hundreds of transgender activists gathered to campaign for equal rights and raise awareness against discrimination. This historic Sindh Moorat March has made 12 major demands in total, while special emphasis was laid on transphobic hate speech and hate crime that has seen a surge in recent times. Ideally, this is how a protest should take place - in a peaceful and secure manner. Credit must also be given to Sindh police which made traffic arrangements, provided 300 policemen for security, and brought in bomb experts to thoroughly search the venue.

Activists adopted the slogan 'Zan, Zindagi and Azad' - i.e. woman, life and free - in part to show solidarity with the women in Iran and to seek proper implementation of trans rights laws. In 2018, Pakistan passed one of the world's most progressive Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act that protects their housing and inheritance rights and allows for the state to acknowledge their identity through the third 'X' gender category. Nadra was unable to issue them CNICs prior to this which meant that the...