Lessons from a transgender mayor’s victory in Bangladesh

[superadmin]

Muslim-majority Bangladesh, known for exporting hundreds of thousands of poor workers to Malaysia to do menial tasks, may have inadvertently shown Malaysians that transgender people can make it big if they are not ostracised or marginalised.

Last week, history was created in the rural Bangladesh town of Trilochanpur when a transgender was elected mayor, winning twice the number of votes of her nearest rival, a male.

Nazrul Islam Ritu, 45, an independent candidate, became the country’s first transgender mayor after a landslide victory over her rival from the ruling party.

She declared that her victory showed growing acceptance of what they call themselves, the “Hijra” community or the third gender as they are officially known.

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