PakistanFirst transgender news anchor survives attack outside her home Lahore Thursday. Marvia Malik, 26, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when two assailants opened fire on her as she was returning from a pharmacy, The Dawn newspaper reported.
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Malik told police she had been receiving threatening calls for some time asking her to speak up for the transgender community in Pakistan, saying her “activism” was behind the attacks.
The Dawn added that Malik had moved out of Lahore due to fears for her safety and had returned to Lahore for a few days at the time of the incident for surgery.
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In 2018, Malik made history by becoming the first transgender person in the Islamic Republic to become a news anchor. She was employed by Pakistan’s Kohenoor News, but revealed in several interviews that achieving the feat was no easy feat.
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“Like other trans people, I didn’t get any support from my family. I did some menial work on my own and continued my studies. I always wanted to be a news anchor and when I was chosen, my dream came true,” she said. Speaking to ABC’s Voice of America in a telephone interview.
She hopes to change people’s perception of the transgender community through her work. “Transgender people are equally capable of anything if given the chance,” she told The Associated Press in a past interview. “Our degrees are useless … Even when we get a job, we are rejected because of who we are, and I want to change that mentality,” she said.