Blog: Traveling as myself

It was five, maybe six months ago when I first went to apply for my passport. For others in Pakistan, this is a menial task. For me, it was a big moment. I was unsure. I was a little scared, to be honest. I didn’t know what to expect at the Peshawar office of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra). Yet, here I was, a 30-year-old transgender, making my way through the crowded lines to meet a senior official.

In 2011, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled to allow a third gender category, apart from male and female, on national identity cards. 

In the new cards, khawajasiras could mark themselves as gender-neutral ‘X’.

Yet, my ID card still read “male.” I have not been a man since I was a child, and my name read as Ilyas. I am not Ilyas, I am Farzana.

“I want a new Identity card and a new passport,” I told the officer, who seemed a little alarmed.

“But your old ID card is still valid, why do you want a new one?” he asked.

“It has been several years since the court ordered a new category for us, I want to see if it really does exist,” I replied more boldly.

He nodded and told me to return the next day. The next day, the officer told me that he spoke to his seniors in Islamabad and they agreed that the passport would be issued, but I will have to wait, much longer than everyone else. 

And so I did. I showed up at the office every Monday. It became a ritual. The office staff all knew me by then.

Yet, every Monday I would get the same reply, wait for a few more days.

Finally five months later, it came. When I went to pick it up, the officer was smiling. “Your trial is finally over,” he said laughing and handed me the green booklet.

Name: Farzana Riaz. Sex: X. I was now the first transgender in Pakistan with a gender-neutral passport.

It was a proud moment. Not just for me but also for my community. No transgender should hesitate now when walking into a Nadra office and demanding what is their right. 

After me, three others from my community have also applied for their passports and are waiting for it to be issued.

We, khawajasiras, have come a long way. The courts insist that we must be identified and counted in the population census. 

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has allocated nearly $2 million in their recent budget for our community and have issued health cards to us. Things are changing.

Now, that I have my passport. I want to travel to America. I want to see the country and its people. I want to walk in proudly through immigration for the first time as myself, not as someone else.

Riaz is a transgender activist in Peshawar. In June, she was issued the first third-gender passport by the government of Pakistan