<\/p>\n
She overcame abuse and prejudice to become the Himalayan country\u2019s first transgender model and is now preparing to strut the catwalk at Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai, India\u2019s premier fashion show, next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up in Nepal as a transgender was extremely difficult,\u201d said Lama, 32, before the fashion extravaganza, which runs from February 1 to February 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn South Asian countries people still aren\u2019t that accepting, they treat it like an illness. The public looks at you differently and treats you in a different manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne has to stay strong and reach out for their dreams,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Lama was born Nabin Waiba to a family of poor farmers in remote Nuwakot in mountainous Nepal.<\/p>\n
But she always knew that she had been born in the wrong body and in 2005 took the decision to dress as a woman for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I couldn\u2019t feel like another person living in someone else\u2019s body. Hence, I was ready to face the cruel words that people threw at me,\u201d said the model.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the people, including my own brothers, weren\u2019t ready to accept me for who I was. I had to stay strong and believe in myself. My mother and sisters were the only ones who supported me throughout.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lama found some acceptance in Kathmandu, where she moved to study, and later became an activist for an LGBT rights group called Blue Diamond Society.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She had partial sex reassignment surgery in 2009 and her interest in modelling was piqued the following year when she was pictured on the front cover of a magazine featuring an article about transgender people.<\/p>\n
It spurred her to pursue a career in modelling full-time. She enrolled in classes but initially found work hard to come by.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was getting rejected because of my identity and that was extremely disheartening,\u201d said Lama, who has established herself as a successful model in her native Nepal over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n
In 2014 she featured in a documentary titled Anjali: Living Inside Someone Else\u2019s Skin in which she said she hoped to become completely female one day \u2013 an operation that is financially out of reach for most Nepalis.<\/p>\n
Her recent success has come as Nepal has increased its recognition of transgender people. In 2015 the country, which allows citizens to choose their sex, started issuing third gender category passports for those who identify themselves as transgender.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the changing times people have become more accepting,\u201d explained Lama.<\/p>\n
Manisha Dhakal, one of the founders of the Blue Diamond Society, said Nepal\u2019s government needed to do more to provide equal opportunities in education and employment for transgender people.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get the acceptance in society we need to be economically empowered,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In neighbouring India, \u201cHijras\u201d have also long complained of discrimination and marginalisation. They are recognised as a third gender but are often shunned from society with some forced into begging or prostitution.<\/p>\n
Lama \u2013 who said it would be a \u201cdream come true\u201d to follow other transgender models onto major catwalks such as New York, Milan and Paris \u2013 hopes her turn at Lakme Fashion Week will make a difference in the battle for acceptance.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI do hope to be an inspiration for other transgender people. I\u2019d like to tell them to always believe in themselves and to work towards their goals.\u201d \u2013 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu (Pahichan) February 3 – \u00a0A Nepali who will become the first transgender model to walk the runway at an Indian fashion show hopes to inspire other victims of gender identity discrimination across conservative South Asia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":6500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[491,981,621,490],"tags":[1304,203,524,746,507,458],"class_list":["post-6499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-model","category-news","category-slider","tag-afp","tag-blue-diamond-society","tag-lgbt","tag-nepal","tag-third-gender","tag-transgender"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6501,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6499\/revisions\/6501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}