Transgender woman finds a niche in tailoring
As Pakistani transgender woman Jiya measures customers at her tailoring shop in a brand new Karachi market, her eyes gleam with the prospect of a busy Ramazan season and her ambitions to expand.
Already, Jiya, 35, who goes by a single name like many trans people in Pakistan, has broken ground by opening a public shop to make clothes for women and transgender women.
Other trans people running tailoring businesses have tended to do so out of their homes, wary of ostracism in a country with many conservative Muslims.
Many landlords were reluctant to give a shop to a transgender woman, Jiya told Reuters at The Stitch Shop in the southern port city. She finally secured one in a new market, which she opened with two other trans women in March in time for the start of Ramazan in mid-April.
The Islamic holy fasting month is traditionally a busy period for tailors as people buy new clothes to mark the Eid al-Fitr festival that ends Ramazan.
![Photo: Reuters](https://i.dawn.com/primary/2021/04/60752c2d1f58c.png)
For Jiya, who studied at an all-boys’ school and learned tailoring with the help of her fellow transgender women, opening her shop marks the start of her ambition.
“We want to expand this business. We want a boutique with Eastern and Western designs, all types of dresses,” she said.
Many of her customers are women, who said they preferred a transgender woman to make their clothes, a change from most other tailoring shops run by men.
“I felt comfortable while she took my measurements,” customer Farzana Zahid said.
![Photo: Reuters](https://i.dawn.com/primary/2021/04/60752c2d50c24.png)
Pakistan’s parliament recognised the third gender in 2018, giving such individuals fundamental rights such as the ability to vote and choose their gender on official documents.
A 2017 census recorded about 10,000 transgender people, although trans rights groups say the number could be well over 300,000 in the country of 220 million.
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