PHOTOS: Bangladeshi Hijras Show Their Pride

One year after the Bangladesh government formally recognized a third gender, the nation's hijras celebrated with their first-ever Pride parade.

Sunnivie Brydum

Sunnivie is the managing editor of The Advocate, and an award-winning journalist whose passion is covering the politics of equality and elevating the unheard stories of our community. Originally from Colorado, she and her spouse now live in Los Angeles, along with their three fur-children: dogs Luna and Cassie Doodle, and "Meow Button" Tilly.

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Sunnivie Brydum

November 10 2014 5:44 PM EST

November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST

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It's been a year since the south Asian nation of Bangladesh formally recognized a third gender, giving unprecedented visibility for individuals known locally as hijra.

More than 1,000 people took to the streets of Dhaka on Monday to participate in the country's first Pride march, reports U.K. LGBT outlet PinkNews.Participants wore bright, colorful saris and reportedly marched through the streets carrying signs, one of which read "The days of stigma, discrimination, and fear are over." The day's festivities also included a talent show

While typically understood in Western cultures to broadly equate with transgender women, hijra may also identify as intersex or nonbinary, embracing local comprehension of gender identity that differs vastly from European conceptions. Hijra is generally understood to be a feminine gender identity.

A 25-year-old hijra named Sonali told Agence France Presse that she never imagined a day where she would see such a rally.

"We are stigmatized everywhere," Sonali explained to AFP. "We are discriminated against. We are laughed at just because we do not feel like a man or a woman. But today is different. We feel like we're normal human beings."

The predominantly Muslim nation of roughly 156 million contains somewhere between 15,000 and half a million hijra, according to government statistics and activist estimates collected by AFP. Last November, the government began recognizing hijra as third gender, giving the individuals access to official, state-recognized documentation that accurately reflects an individual's identity.