Nisha Rao: First Transgender Lawyer In Pakistan

Based in Karachi, 28-year-old, Nisha Rao is the first transgender lawyer in Pakistan. She earned a degree in law from Sindh Muslim Law College in 2018 and now she fights cases of other people and the transgender community. Nisha has fought more than 50 cases until now and has seen many ups and downs in her life to reach here.

Early Life of Nisha Rao:

Now she has gained the support of her family but her relationship with her family has not always been good.

Nisha belongs to Lahore, but after matriculation, she fled to Karachi to flee from torture and physical abuse by her family. She spent ten years begging while at the same time studying law with the begged money. Nisha Rao shared with the independent Urdu that she always had feminine habits.

“I used to sit in the madrassa with the girls and recite the Quran. I used to wear a headscarf and applied lipstick. Thanks to these actions, I was mostly beaten by my family. At school, children used to call me Rima Sharmili and I used to cry a lot.”

~ Nisha Rao

Depression & Begging:

Nisha became very depressed in the ninth grade when she realized that God has made her a different person. But after some time she thought that she has hands and feet, eyes, and a good mind, she can study hard and be motivated to earn herself a decent career.

With no support from family, Nisha had to flee to Karachi with her two other transgender friends. She stole her father’s salary and took the train to Karachi. Nisha was forced to beg for a livelihood as her gurus were also poor. And since she didn’t have an ID card, no one would appoint her for a job.

Motivation by Teacher:

Nisha was terrified of the police when she used to beg. They did not treat the people of her community humanly. Then one day her teacher, Mudassir Iqbal Chaudhry advised her to become a lawyer.

“You wouldn’t need to be scared of anyone. In fact, the police will be scared of you, he told me,” Rao added.

Aims of Nisha Rao:

Nisha is working hard to give support to her transgender community. She wants to make a shelter home for elderly people in her community so that they would be treated well and spend the remaining of their lives in comfort.