Tashnuva Anan Shishir created history on March 8, 2021, by becoming the first transgender news anchor in Bangladesh. She has been an activist, actress and model. Recently, she was featured in The New York Times.
“I was born with a male body, but I was matching a woman’s mind with soul,” Anan told The New York Times.
Anan has also featured in two films, ‘Koshai’ by Anonno Mamun and ‘Goal’ by Syed Shahriar. In the first, she played the detective, and in the other, she was a female coach whose struggles were highlighted.
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In a relatively conservative country like Bangladesh, it was an achievement for Anan to become the first openly transgender news anchor. On International Women’s Day in 2021, she spoke for three minutes on air, and millions of her compatriots saw her. She occasionally anchored for Boishakhi TV throughout November 2021.
In December 2021, she went to New York to receive healthcare related to her transformation. In 2022, she walked the ramps of the New York Fashion Week and was the first transgender model to do so.
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Growing up in a conservative Muslim family, Anan has witnessed harassment and even survived many suicide attempts. She had been shunned by her family, even her father. She was penniless at one point and lived in slums.
In a video interview with a reporter for The New York Times, Anan said she always wanted to be an actor. “People should not be considered by their gender. People should acknowledge their work. People should acknowledge their skill,” she added.
She said that being an anchor opened her eyes, but it did not bring her the global platform. However, being in the US, she now can explore the entire world.
“I was feeling, if I have to swim… I should swim in the ocean, not in a pond, not in a river,” she said.
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In March, ‘Public Obscenities’, a bilingual play in Bengali and English directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhary, hit the theatres in the US. The play was set in India. It is about a couple that interviews locals from the queer community in Kolkata.
Anan plays Shou, one of the major characters that identify as Kothi, an Indian gender which is generally used for males who do not conform to their social gender role. This role changed her life. She said, “Shou is intelligent, Shou is extra-talented, an extrovert, and Shou knows actually about this scenario: the situation of queer people, queer activism, especially in Kolkata, Bangladesh, Pakistan. So Shou is charming to everyone. Shou is connected with everyone.”
Anan said Shou was a feminine guy, a common character in the South Asian queer (things to keep in mind while talking to a queer person) communities.
After playing a character like Shou, The interviewer asked what was next for her, she said she would like to keep it a secret because, in her experience, people judged her whenever she shared her dreams with them.
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However, she loves delivering Broadway performances and would like to continue doing them. On Instagram, Anan is often spotted posting motivational short videos.
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