For the first time in Bangladesh, a television station has hired a transgender as a newscaster.
Tashnuva Anan Shishir will start her career in news at Boishakhi TV from March 8, International Women’s Day, the TV station said in a statement.
A performer by profession, Tashnuva has been modelling and acting for a long time. This year, she signed up for two movies, where she will play the role of a female football coach in one.
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Earlier this year, Tashnuva got herself in the Brac James P Grant School of Public Health at Brac University along with another transgender woman, Ho Chi Minh Islam.
They got scholarships for the Master of Public Health (MPH) program.
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Bangladesh’s transgender community, colloquially called “hijra”, has been mistreated for decades. An estimated 10,000 to half a million — of Bangladesh’s population of around 160 million — belong to the third gender community.