Transgender vulnerability in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stems from stigma and exclusion. Studies reveal internalized shame, perceived unemployability/sex work, enacted exclusion from family, school, religion, healthcare. Vulgarity views enable unchecked violence.

By Rabia Ajaib

Across the northwestern Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), a grim pattern of violence against transgender individuals is emerging. According to community sources cited by the local news outlet Tribal News Network, some 195 members of the transgender community have been killed in the province since 2015, and at least 13 brutal attacks have been reported in the first ten months of 2025 alone.

Violent attacks – ranging from torture and shootings to gang-rape – have rocked districts across KP, including the likes of Swat and Dera Ismail Khan. In one recent incident in Swat a 20-year-old transgender person, identified as Umair (alias Shayan), was tortured by two men, sustaining multiple fractures including to the jaw and spine. Local police confirmed arrests in that case.

In Dera Ismail Khan, the chain of violence took an even more horrifying shape when a transgender individual was allegedly gang-raped by four men, bound with ropes and assaulted before registering a complaint – highlighting not just deadly acts, but wider sexual violence targeting the community.

Activists say that in 2025 alone at least 11 individuals from the transgender community have already been murdered in KP, with most cases focused around the provincial capital of Peshawar.

Yet many experts caution that these figures likely under-represent the true scale of violence, given the reluctance of victims to report and the absence of robust official statistics.

Stigma; Systemic Marginalisation

The heightened vulnerability of the transgender community in KP is under-pinned by long-standing social stigma and structural exclusion. A qualitative study of khwaja sira (third-gender) people in the Swat Valley, KP, found three overlapping dimensions of discrimination: internalised stigma (feelings of shame), perceived stigma (public views of them as unemployable or sex workers) and enacted stigma (exclusion from family, school, religious spaces, healthcare).

Societal attitudes in many parts of Pakistan continue to associate transgender people with “vulgarity” or impropriety, allowing violence and abuse to flourish unchecked. As one activist in KP put it:

“This reflects not only entrenched violence but also the dangerous thought process that sees us as expendable.”

The consequences of this marginalisation are manifold: many transgender individuals in KP have limited access to formal employment, health care and safe housing; some are pushed into begging, dancing or sex-work to survive.

In healthcare, for example, KP’s health department announced in April 2024 a policy to designate a separate room in public hospitals for transgender patients – a step welcomed by the community, but still far from mainstreaming inclusive treatment.

Legal Protections and Culture

On paper, Pakistan has taken important steps to protect transgender rights. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 allows individuals to self-identify as a third gender and bans discrimination in education, employment and public services.

But in KP the gap between legislation and reality remains wide. Investigations into murders of transgender individuals are often delayed, perpetrators remain at large and victims rarely receive justice. For example, in KP the community estimates that none of the previous 122 killings had resulted in convictions.

Activists also point to the absence of safe housing, livelihood schemes, and meaningful police engagement. They say law-enforcement often treats attacks as ordinary crime rather than hate-based violence, with little transparency or follow-through.

Moreover, the very fact that community leaders cite 195 deaths since 2015 indicates persistent under-reporting and invisibility of the violence.

The violence faced by transgender individuals in KP is not isolated – it reflects intersecting layers of gender-based oppression, poverty, legal invisibility and societal hostility. When almost 200 lives are lost across a province over a decade, the implications for human rights, public health and justice policy are profound.

For one, the high death toll signals that KP is a hotspot for gender-based violence beyond the usual focus on women and girls – a narrative that is rarely acknowledged publicly. Secondly, the human cost undermines efforts to promote inclusive development, especially in a province already grappling with other forms of insecurity and deprivation.

Vulnerable Citizens

Trans-rights organisations in KP are calling for:

• Transparent, public-facing data on killings, attacks and harassment of transgender persons.
• Dedicated police units to investigate hate-based violence, with community tracking of outcomes.
• Economic empowerment programmes tailored for transgender individuals — including skills training, safe employment and access to social protection.
• Rapid-response housing and shelter mechanisms for those displaced by family or community violence.
• Broader societal awareness campaigns, particularly in conservative Pashtun areas of KP, aimed at challenging stigma.

One civil-society leader stated:

“Is it the transgender community who is spreading vulgarity, or are we being blamed so society can escape from the dirty realities and pin them on us?”

The coming months will test the provincial government’s commitment to protecting its most vulnerable citizens – and whether the deadliest chapter in KP’s transgender community can finally force meaningful change.

In the absence of reliable official statistics, the 195-life figure cited by community sources stands as a stark reminder: law, policy and compassion still lag far behind the lived realities of transgender people in KP. The question now is whether this crisis will spur action — or remain a silent tragedy.