Pride as a Platform for Bangladeshi LGBTIQ+ Voices
Dhaka Pride is open to everyone and warmly welcomes Bangladeshi LGBTIQ+ community members, allies, friends, and supporters to participate. Its purpose is to highlight the visibility of LGBTIQ+ people in Bangladesh, amplify untold stories, challenge myths and taboos, and promote the human rights of people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and sex characteristics.
At the heart of Dhaka Pride is the trust and support of the community. Every comment, share, performance, message, and act of solidarity contributes to building a safer and more visible future. Dhaka Pride 2026 therefore became not only a cultural celebration, but also a collective reminder that Bangladeshi LGBTIQ+ people exist, create, love, dream, resist, and deserve to live with dignity.
Derina Ahmed: Makeup Cosplay and the Echo of Exclusion
The festival opened with an English-language makeup cosplay performance by Derina Ahmed, an emerging artist. Through visual expression, makeup, and characterisation, Derina explored the inner echo of LGBTIQ+ people who are excluded from society, subjected to violence, and forced into silence due to social taboos and restrictive norms.
Her performance reflected the emotional weight carried by those who live under pressure to hide their identities. It gave form to the pain of invisibility, while also showing the power of artistic expression as a means of reclaiming the self.
Imrul Hasan Erani: Moving Forward from a Remote Village
Imrul Hasan Erani joined Dhaka Pride 2026 from a remote village in Bangladesh, presenting a dance performance to the song “হার জিত চিরদিন থাকবেই, তবু এগিয়ে যেতেই হবে.” (english translation "Defeat will always be there, but we must move forward." ) She chose the song because of its message that success and failure are both parts of life, but failure should never stop one’s journey.
Erani’s participation represented one of Dhaka Pride’s most important achievements: reaching LGBTIQ+ people beyond major cities and urban networks. Her courage and dedication demonstrated that Pride belongs not only to Dhaka, but to every corner of Bangladesh where people continue to search for dignity, recognition, and hope.
Marjuk Ahmed Chowdhury: A Queer Bangladeshi Voice from the USA
Marjuk Ahmed Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi queer individual currently living in the United States, joined Dhaka Pride 2026 with a personal message and a short emotional poem written for the audience.
His contribution reflected the deep connection between diaspora communities and their roots. Even when people are physically far from Bangladesh, their relationship with language, memory, identity, and community remains alive.
Marjuk’s poem reminded the audience that Pride is not limited by geography; it is carried through belonging, longing, and solidarity.
Sanjiboni Shudha: A Trans Woman’s Search for Love
Sanjiboni Shudha, Executive Director of Inclusive Bangladesh and Dhaka Pride, joined this year’s festival with a dance performance to the song “খেজুর পাতার নূপুর বাজায়.” (English translation: “Plays the palm leaf flute.”)
Through this performance, Sanjiboni highlighted the longing, tenderness, and emotional world of a trans woman searching for love and companionship. By connecting the heart of a trans woman with the beauty of nature, the performance challenged the social tendency to see transgender people only through stigma, discrimination, or stereotypes.
Her dance affirmed a simple but powerful truth: trans people have the same right to love, desire, affection, partnership, and emotional fulfilment as everyone else. It reflected the shared dream of many LGBTIQ+ people who continue to wait, hope, and search for love in a society that often denies them recognition.
S M Mominul Islam: Poetry as Resistance and Human Rights
S M Mominul Islam, a member of the Dhaka Pride team, presented a self-written poem highlighting Bangladeshi queer life, struggle, emotion, love, survival, and human rights.
Mominul has participated in every Dhaka Pride festival since its beginning, making 2026 their sixth year of participation. Their continued presence represents commitment, memory, and continuity within the Dhaka Pride movement.
Their poem carried a call to resist silence and speak up for individual and collective human rights. It reminded the audience that poetry can be more than art—it can become testimony, protest, and a demand for dignity.
Md Sharif Abdullah Dipto: The Soul Cannot Be Bound
Md Sharif Abdullah Dipto joined Dhaka Pride for the first time with a dance performance to the song “আমার হাত বাঁধিবি, পা বাঁধিবি, মন বাঁধিবি কেমনে.” (English translation: "How can you tie my hands, tie my feet, tie my mind?")
The performance highlighted the controlling behaviour of an oppressive society, where LGBTIQ+ people often face restrictions on their human rights, freedom, relationships, movement, expression, and choices. From exclusion to violence, from forced closeting to forced marriage, many LGBTIQ+ people experience life as if their hands, feet, and bodies are tied.
Yet the central message of Dipto’s performance was that the soul cannot be controlled. Even when bodies are restricted, the desire for freedom, love, and justice continues to echo from one corner of Bangladesh to another.
Tarin Tani Bashar: Love, Money, and Economic Freedom
Tarin Tani Bashar, Project Director of Inclusive Bangladesh and a member of the Dhaka Pride team, returned this year with another creative dance performance, this time to the song “টাকা পাখি.” (English Translation: Money bird).
Beyond her human rights advocacy, Tarin is also an entrepreneur. Through her experience, she has observed how many LGBTIQ+ community members become emotionally and financially vulnerable while searching for love, acceptance, and relationships. Many face financial manipulation, dependency, abuse, abandonment, and crisis.
Her performance carried a humorous yet serious message: love is important, but economic independence is also essential. In the Bangladeshi context, financial freedom can become a key tool for personal safety, autonomy, dignity, and human rights. Tarin’s performance encouraged LGBTIQ+ people to value themselves, protect their financial wellbeing, and build independent lives.
Touhidul Islam: “অর্ধনারীশ্বর” (Half-woman God) and the Voice of Gender Diversity
Touhidul Islam, a gender-diverse Bangladeshi person, joined Dhaka Pride for the first time from a rural village in Bangladesh. They recited their self-written poem “অর্ধনারীশ্বর,” (english Translation: "Half Woman God) reflecting on the lives of gender-diverse people in Bangladesh—their past, present, and imagined future.
The poem expressed a simple but deeply human expectation: to be seen as human, to be respected, and to enjoy the same human rights as everyone else.
Touhidul’s participation demonstrated the unique role of Dhaka Pride as a platform where people from rural and marginalised contexts can speak in their own voice, tell their own stories, and claim their place within the national conversation on dignity and rights. Their courage is a reminder that the stories of gender-diverse Bangladeshis must be heard, respected, and preserved.