Exclusive: Transgender Beauty Queen Naaz Joshi on Winning Miss World Diversity and Voicing Gender Equality
It is extremely difficult to be a transwoman in India. They are frequently outcast, and their parents openly reject their identity. Naaz Joshi's story is very similar. Miss Naaz Joshi not only fought her way up to become India's first trans woman fashion model, but she also went on to become Miss World Diversity 2017-2019, Miss Universe Diversity 2020, Empress Earth 2021, and Tedx speaker. This Pride Month, Dainik Jagran interviewed Naaz about her journey from being an abandoned child to becoming India's first transgender supermodel.
This Pride Month lets here the story of Courgae and Pride and how Naaz changed to become her true self with love.
Who is Naaz Joshi?
Born on December 31, 1984, Naaz Joshi hails from New Delhi, India. She is the first transgender international beauty queen from India, as well as a trans rights activist and motivational speaker.
Joshi was crowned Miss World Diversity three times in a row. She is the first transgender cover model, first trans woman in history to win an international beauty pageant alongside cisgender women. Along with that Naaz is the country's first transgender performer and is the country's first transgender model.
The Struggle Story of Naaz Joshi
Joshi worked as a sex worker to fund her gender reassignment surgery. In 2018, she claimed she was the victim of gender discrimination after a hotel in Gurgaon refused her reservation. When contacted about the matter by the Hindustan Times, a junior employee of the hotel stated that the booking was cancelled for "gender-based reasons," but this was later denied by the general manager, who stated that "allegations of discrimination of any kind were false" and that the hotel had not yet confirmed Joshi's booking because it was still awaiting approval from the regional sales office.
Naaz is the proud mother of two daughters, whom she adopted after their biological families abandoned them. She revealed in an interview that her younger daughter was the daughter of a 16-year-old girl who threw the child into a garbage can.
The Supreme Court of India recognised transgender as a third gender on April 14, 2014, improving the status of India's transgender population. She has also been crowned Miss Republic International Beauty Ambassador and Miss United Nations Ambassador.
Miss World Diversity 2019 interacted with IIM students to promote mutual respect and inclusion of the third gender.
During an interview on India's 72nd Independence Day, she stated that love is not free in the country. She was living with a boy, and her marriage was called off due to her gender identity. Trans women face a lot of hatred and transphobia in India.
