“To live with all the abilities in life is not a big deal, but having disabilities in life and then living your life perfectly is the biggest achievement in life and the people who have this spirit are the born survivors.”
This quote is apt for those people who have proved that it’s not the physical abilities and the appearance that makes you achieve something in life, instead it’s your spirit and attitude that encourages you and helps you stand somewhere in society.
Meet Aizya Naaz Joshi, who is a transgender woman. Despite all the difficulties she faced, she never gave up on her dreams. She preceded 22 female contestants and went on to become the first Indian transsexual Miss World Diversity, 2018. Today the whole world says to her, “We are proud of you”!
When she was young and use to live in Delhi, she always thought of herself as a girl and never as a boy. All her activities were similar to that of a girl. Her parents sent her to Mumbai so that people in their neighbourhood, wouldn’t come to know that she is a transsexual. Her life has been full of struggles since childhood, she is from Delhi, her father is a Punjabi, and her mother is a Muslim. Her upbringing took place in her maternal uncle’s family.
She worked in restaurants. Something terrible happened to her, but that didn’t divert her towards a wrong path. She wanted to do something that would earn her respect in the society. Education mattered a lot to her. She took admission in NIFT and became a topper there. After that, she pursued an MBA in marketing from IMT through correspondence, because she was not given a regular admission.
She is the first transsexual woman who has appeared on the cover page of an international magazine. She put in a lot of efforts but still never got the respect that people generally get. When she entered modelling, she met Rishi Taneja, a photographer, who made a biopic on her. After seeing that biopic, some media houses gave her a break, and she came on the cover page. She was not accepted at first, but she didn’t give up and only focused on making her life better.
She has taken a big step towards bringing about change in the society. Her vision is to do something for the welfare of girls, especially in rural areas, by opening computer institutes to impart free education to them, so that they become self-dependent. When her glamorous shoot took place, and she came on the cover page of an international magazine, she thought she was dreaming, but when her parents called her up and told her, “we are proud of you”, it was the happiest moment of her life. They called her up in Mumbai, and now she lives with them. She believes that humanity is her religion. She thinks that even if she did not get the love and respect, she deserved; she would give it to people who need it. “It’s nothing like if society has not accepted me, I should do the same”, she says.
She did many fashion shows and later participated in many beauty pageants. She organises ‘Mrs Homemaker’ competition, and under this banner, she has organised six beauty pageant till now. She was also a show stopper in Rajasthan Designer Festival in 2014.