Pakistan Just Hired Their First Transgender News Anchor

21-year-old Maavia Malik has become Pakistan's first transgender news anchor, appearing on the network Kohenoor for the first time this past Friday, i-Dreports.

Malik told BBC: "Our community should be treated equally and there must not be any gender discrimination. We should be given equal rights and be considered ordinary citizens, instead of a third gender." Malik explained she was brought to tears when she was offered the job.

Several South Asian countries, including Pakistan, have taken to referring to trans people as neither man nor woman. Earlier this month, Pakistan's senate passed a bill providing complete legal protections to transgender people, including the possibility of the death sentence for the rape of a trans person.

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Network owner Junaid Ansari told VOAof the decision: "I purely made the decision on the basis of treating all humans equally. The thought of challenging the social norms or breaking taboos did not even come to my mind."

Malik's position paves the way for trans visibility across the board. "The dream that I saw for myself," she explains to BBC, "I was able to climb on the first stair to achieving it."