Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): International Women’s Day (IWD) embraces the beauty, struggles, and need for equity in womanhood, but there are many who are still fighting just to be recognised as women. Yes, we are talking about trans women. Especially, being an open trans woman in a small city like Madhya Pradesh's Ashoknagar is no less than a triumph.
But this freedom doesn’t come for free; it costs them their safety, privacy, family relations, and mental health. One such girl is Eva Yadav, a 23-year-old trans woman, or transgender woman, who was assigned male at birth but decided to listen to her heart and mind and started living her life as a trans woman. "I was born a woman into a male body," she said.
Eva Yadav is the first openly trans woman from Ashoknagar; her coming out journey wasn’t easy. From building up muscles to behave like a boy to getting rape threats and molestation, she had to go through every evil after coming out as a trans woman. She opened up to the Free Press about her journey.
"I can’t be something that I am not"
"I tried to do everything to behave like a normal male; I even went to the gym to build up muscles. But nothing worked. Because I can’t be something that I am not, I knew I was different since childhood. Then I decided to embrace my womanhood and be proud of who I am." Yadav said.
"Coming out wasn’t easy; I got rape threats"
Yadav said, "People that I grew up with stopped talking to me when they got to know that I am a trans woman. My mother objected in the beginning because she was afraid, but later, she supported me. My brother is still transphobic. Neighbourhood people shared my pictures on their social media; some even said she should be raped; many tried to molest me to teach me a lesson; but is it my fault that I was born trans?"
Eva ended the conversation by saying, feminism, or womanhood, means no woman must be left behind, and that means trans women too." Trans women are women too.
 (1).jpg)