There was a strong reaction on social media after two transgender women were kicked off of a plane of a Dubai-based airline due to their gender at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Flydubai offloaded Shahzadi Rai and Zehrish, the two transgender rights activists, who were travelling from Karachi to Kathmandu via UAE after cancelling their tickets.

While sharing her ticket issued by the airline, Shahzadi Rai said“Transgender persons are part of the mainstream in other countries but Flydubai doesn’t allow x-gender cards for travelling, which is transphobic behaviour by the airline. If they don’t allow travel on their planes then why even issue us tickets."

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A post shared by Shahzadi Rai (@shahzadi_rai)

Shahzadi Rai said the airline staff at Karachi airport also issued boarding cards to them for travel, but 15 minutes before the departure of the flight, the boarding card was withdrawn.

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A post shared by Shahzadi Rai (@shahzadi_rai)

The two activits said that they had travelled to UAE before. “Now we were going to Nepal for a conference. We were not even allowed to contact the airline when we came out of the airport, besides no one received calls on the numbers given by the Flydubai office in Karachi.”

It was only an hour before the incident where the transgender activists’ tickets were cancelled that Shahzadi Rai had posted a happy photo of herself at the airport with the caption: ‘The goal is to die with memories, not dreams.’

“Shame on Flydubai for not letting khwaja siras fly on their airlines,” said another transgender who goes by the Twitter handle of @sanakhusri.

https://twitter.com/sanakhusri/status/1616405155993292802

https://twitter.com/surkhina/status/1616417494675165186

https://twitter.com/sanakhusri/status/1616405155993292802