A transgender person has made history by passing the professional MBBS exam for the first time in Pakistan’s history.
Sara Gill Khan, the first transgender person to have this honour in Pakistan, passed her final professional exam of MBBS from the Jinnah Medical and Dental College in Karachi.
Sara, who had to enroll in the medical college as a male student, told an interviewer that her class-fellows knew about her identity though it was never formally declared. She said that her parents insisted that she pose as a male.
She said, “They insisted that I pose as a boy throughout my life despite knowing that I am not. They said that I am selfish and not considering the respect that the family would lose after I declare myself as transgender. Every transgender has to face the same situation.”
She said in the interview before completion of her MBBS degree, “My family warned me that if declare myself as a transgender, they will stop paying for my studies. Now I will have to arrange for my next year’s fee on my own.”
Some reports suggest that Sara also attempted suicide a couple of times. “A normal person can never understand our state of mind. It is like a soul trapped in a wrong body,” she said.
Sara also runs the NGO Gender Interactive Alliance. “I am not ashamed of my sexuality and the best inspiration is that my community needs me,” she said.
