One of the world’s most homophobic countries is about to have a transgender model appear at fashion week

Discrimination and abuse against LGBT people persists in India

Anjali Lama (centre) first auditioned for the Lakma Fashion Week last year but was rejected, she said (Anjali Lama/Facebook)

A transgender model will appear on the catwalk of a fashion show in India in February, in a sign that attitudes may be changing in what has historically been one of the most homophobic countries in the world.

Anjali Lama will appear at the Lakma fashion week – one of India’s most high-profile fashion events – modelling clothes by several leading designers.

The Nepalese model says she suffered “rejection and discrimination” in the past but is now securing work with top labels.

Her rise is remarkable as homophobia remains a persistent problem in India, despite the introduction of some laws aimed at tackling it.

Born Nabin Waiba Tamang, Lama said she took the name Anjali - a common name in India and Nepal - after a transgender friend suggested it.

She joined a modelling academy in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, but kept her new identity a secret from her family.

When someone from her village found out Lama was living as a transgender woman and told her family, they cut ties with her.

She said: “My mother, to some extent, was more accepting but there really wasn't much awareness then.

“It wasn't easy for me in the early days when there was so much rejection and discrimination.

"Now I am getting an overwhelming response from the fashion industry after being selected, and other transgender people tell me they are proud of me."

The organiser of the event says Lakma is committed to breaking stereotypes in gender, size and beauty.

But Indian society remains largely conservative.

A poll conducted five years ago by the CNN-IBN television news channel found almost three-quarters of the public believed homosexuality should be illegal and 83 per cent said homosexuality was not part of Indian culture.

In 2015, India backed a Russian motion at the United Nations that would have denied staff benefits to gay couples working for the institution.

Section 377 of India’s penal code says “sex against the order of nature” can be punished with up to 10 years in prison.

The law, which dates back to Britain’s colonial rule, is widely interpreted as a ban on gay sex.

However, transgender people in India are eligible for quotas in jobs and educational institutions.

They also got a boost from Bollywood last year when a pop band of transgender women featured on the soundtrack of a Hindi film.

Neighbouring Nepal, Lama’s home country, has granted protections to LGBT people in its new Constitution and began issuing passports with a third gender category in 2015, one of only a handful of countries to do so.

Still, discrimination and abuse persist in both countries, and jobs are hard to come by.

Additional reporting by Reuters