Sadia Akhter Pinky became the first Bangladeshi transgender woman to win the upazila council polls as vice chairman. Pinky who is a convener of Kotchandpur Upazila’s Jubo Mohila League wing won the polls in Jhenaidah on Monday (Oct 14) with 12,880 votes.

Speaking to Bangla Tribune after the victory, she said that she wants to establish the rights and dignity of the transgender who were given the status of a separate gender or the third sex in 2013 by the Bangladesh government.

A resident of the Upazila’s Suyadi village, she had been raised as a girl in a family of four siblings. She studied up to class 10 and was married off but the marriage did not last after which she joined politics. “The people of Kotchandpur are with me. I won through their votes and for that I am grateful,” she said and added that her family had supported her as well.

“I have been serving as Jubo Mohila League’s district unit convener and president of the Boluhar Government Primary School managing committee,” she said.

She added that she had helped the people in various capacities and carried out many social-welfare activities. Responding to queries on what issues she wants to work on now, she said, “I want to work for the development of the people.”

She said that she wants to build a drug-free and terrorism-free in addition to establishing the rights of the third gender in the community.