Ziya Paval and partner Zahad came into limelight when their pregnancy photoshoot went viral. Little did they know then that they were creating history for the LGBTQ community. As much as the world around added tag to the transgender pregnancy with names and assumptions, the couple has emerged as a hope for the queer community.
India’s First Transgender Pregnancy
Ziya is a transwoman and Zahad is a transman. Zahad was undergoing his gender transformation, got the breasts removed and was undergoing hormone treatment. But their life took a U-turn when he was pregnant with Ziya’s child. For the child’s health, Zahad put off his hormone treatment till delivery.
Judgements
While the news was accepted openheartedly by the larger strata of the country, another section called the pregnancy ‘hollow’, releasing a can of worms which show how regressive a section of the nation can be. The bigotry of the so called male dominated society was laid bare when a bunch of cyber bullies went berserk assigned bizzare names for the baby and the pregnancy.
Despite all odds, the couple refused to give in to the dysfunctional views of the superficially functional society.
The new member
On 9th February, Zahad gave birth to a baby. The pregnancy that the whole nation was looking forward to went uneventful and the child is healthy. When inquired about the gender of the child, Ziya said she would leave it to the child decide the gender and refused to go by the cisgender norms. She initiated a legal battle to add her name under mother and Zahad’s name, (who gave birth to the child) as father. Whether you like it or not, this is a revolution that was long overdue and the country is set to see a change that the queer community and allies were waiting to witness. If the could created history with the first transgender pregnancy, they repeated it by deciding not to reveal the childs gender and setting off a legal battle to get the names of the mother and father in columns against the cisgender norms.