Pakistan has opened its first government-funded school for transgender women, who are often bullied out of mainstream education as children in the deeply conservative nation.
The country's Khawaja Sira community date back hundreds of years and are treated as a third sex in South Asia.
Many are ostracised by their families and shunned by society, earning a living through dancing, begging or sex work.
Murad Raas, education minister for Punjab province where the school is based, vowed to provide "education for everyone" as he announced the opening of the school this week in the central city of Multan.
