The photo session showing the pregnancy of a transgender couple is being shared massively on the networks in India.
Ziya Paval, 21, and her partner Zahad, 23, live in southern India, in the state of Kerala.
The couple interrupted their hormone therapy to have a baby.
Ziya says that she always wanted children. She was registered as male when she was born, but today she identifies as female.
Zahad, who uses only his first name, was registered as a female at birth but now identifies as a male. He is currently pregnant, and the couple hope to welcome their baby boy soon.
The couple was showered with congratulations on the networks for the pregnancy.
“Trans people deserve to have a family,” transgender actress S Negha commented on Instagram, where she shared photos of the couple.
Ziya and Zahad say their experience may be very rare in India, because “no one else in the trans world has called themselves biological parents, as far as we know.”
India is estimated to have two million transgender people, though activists say the number is higher. In 2014, the Supreme Court in India ruled that they have the same rights as other people.
Still, they struggle to get education and health, and often face prejudice and stigma.
When Ziya and Zahad met three years ago, both had lost contact with their families.
“I come from a conservative Muslim family, which never let me learn classical dance,” says Ziya. “[Mis padres] They were so orthodox that they cut my but so I wouldn’t dance.”
One day he went to a youth festival and never returned home.
Zahad, who studied to be an accountant, comes from a Christian family in the fishing community of the city of Thiruvananthapuram. He works in a supermarket.
He had to leave his family when he came out as trans. But after her pregnancy, her family has accepted the couple and is supporting them.
“They have helped Zahad during the pregnancy,” says Ziya.
Initially, Zahad’s mother asked that the pregnancy be kept private. After she gave her permission, the couple announced it on their Instagram page.
Ziya says her family still hasn’t accepted it.
The couple decided to have the baby a year and a half ago, when they were both at different stages of their transition, Ziya told the BBC.
Zahad had not yet undergone the operation to remove her ovaries and uterus, but the couple stopped using hormone treatment on the advice of their doctors.
The couple’s doctors are not authorized to speak to the media.
“Once the pregnancy ends, they can go back to hormone replacement therapy,” says Dr. Mahesh DM, an endocrinologist in Bangalore City who has treated several transgender people.
According to the couple, the trans community has given “broad support” to their pregnancy.
“Of course, there are people both within the transgender community and outside who believe in stereotypes. They believe that a trans man cannot carry a baby,” says Ziya.
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