Thirty-two-year-old Sanam Fakeer is a poster-girl for the transgender community. As a social entrepreneur and a staunch rights campaigner, Sanam has already broken several barriers to reclaim both respect and dignity for her much misunderstood community. On Sunday, Sanam set her sights on another barrier: elected office.

While launching herself headlong into the race for a provincial assembly seat from Sukkur, Sanam is aware of the strength of the ruling party candidate. But as far as Sanam is concerned, she’s no underdog.

Her experience of running a social welfare organisation and a computer training centre has already shown she’s man enough for the job. After all, Sanam has had to stand tall against the tide of discrimination against transgender persons.

“There is no harm in dancing to make people happy for a while,” says Sanam. “But as far as selling sex is concerned — I am totally against it!” Disowning herself from the activities of a regular ‘hijra’ on the streets of Karachi or Lahore, Sanam has won oodles of respect in the constituency. Her popularity will certainly test other contestants.

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