08/10/2021
The phenomenon
“Bangladesh gets its first, transgender news anchor, on Women's Day.”
This sentence made it to the headlines on both national as well as international platforms. And why the eyebrows were raised, expecting their question to be “Who?”, It was rather “How?!”. The occurrence was more questionable because, by many, it was an “accident” and not an “achievement”. We’re talking about Tashnuva Anan Shishir, who made her identity clear and confronted millions of eyes as the first openly transgender news anchor in Bangladesh’s history to deliver a 3-minute long news bulletin on 8th March, which is International Women’s Day.
Born in a conservative Muslim family living in Bangladesh, it was absurd to think out of the box of gender norms. In her early teen years, the realization that she was different from what she was assigned at birth, which is male, came like a blow out of nowhere. She kept wondering, “who am I?”,” Is there anyone like me?”. While living in a slum, fighting for each penny every day, she had to endure all those harassment and abuse, both physically and mentally, which came as a result of her acting and coming out as a different personality. Regardless of the constant bullying from friends, family, society, and every other soul, she accepted that even though she was born in the body of a male, she had a woman’s mind and soul. She made up her motto, “I have to prove that I exist in society!”.
Cutting all the knots with a family that considered her a disgrace, she fled from her house at the age of 15 and came to live at her uncle's house in Narayanganj, still disguising herself as a male. There she continued her study in order to make her dream come true.
Later she moved to Dhaka to complete her further studies. She started modeling, acting, dancing, social working, volunteering, and all that gave fulfillment towards her goal. Declaring herself as a transgender woman in 2015, she started taking hormones, growing hair, wearing makeup, and dressing like a woman.
Her struggles just had begun. Doctors would treat her as a person who is psychosocially disabled. From taking pills for the treatment she didn’t need to discriminations of all types, she had faced it all alone. She even attempted su***de four times. Rejection from every job she applied even though she was capable, was becoming unbearable to her.
After a lot of hesitation due to the fear of rejection, she finally applied to the private news channel “Boishakhi TV” as a news reporter. To her surprise, she got accepted! Her sufferings finally paid off.
This broke the ice. She proved that the thing that is considered impossible becomes possible when it is done. She is a role model to the people of her type who couldn't think of doing something so revolutionary. She is the living proof that with determination and capability, success is inevitable, it will come today or tomorrow. She is the reason to believe that BEING TRANS ISN’T A CHOICE BUT BEING JUDGEMENTAL, IS!
Writer: Maantaka Nihal Arma
Resercher: Joyeeta Mazumder
