Noakhali, Bangladesh — At 28, Kotha Islam Zara is a transgender woman, a community educator and a provider of care. She is raising her adopted daughter on her own. 

“I love raising my child,” Zara says softly. “Our society is often harsh on girls. She is my greatest joy. When I face stigma or discrimination, I come home to her, and she gives me strength.”

Zara works with Dhaka Ahsania Mission as an HIV peer educator. Her work brings her into close contact with people living with HIV, sex workers and people with gender diversity — groups that often face exclusion, discrimination and limited access to services. She conducts community outreach, supports screening and ensures referrals to health care.

Her journey has not been easy. Zara was abandoned from her own family, forced to leave school after grade eight due to bullying and discrimination. For years, education felt out of reach, until a supervisor at her workplace encouraged her to return.

“I decided to try again,” she says with pride. “Now I continue my high school education in the evening school.”

For Zara, education was about reclaiming dignity, agency and opportunity.

Zara lives in a modest apartment in Noakhali city, shared with other transgender women. Staying together, she explains, offers protection and solidarity in a society where many transgender people face rejection from families and employers. Noakhali, a coastal district in Bangladesh, is highly vulnerable to climate shocks such as floods and cyclones.  

“Being together helps us survive,” she says. “We support one another emotionally, socially and economically.”

Zara completed certified tailoring and sewing training from the Department of Social Service and with UNFPA’s support she also trained other transgender women in remote areas. Both Zara and other trainees received equipment and small start-up funds and now they make clothing for themselves and other community members. These efforts opened pathways to livelihoods and strengthened climate resilience under a UNFPA supported initiative funded by  Japan. 

Zara is also a certified UNFPA Trainer under the Durjoyee project on climate-induced gender-based violence. The initiative focused on tackling risk mitigation, resilience, and recovery, and represents Bangladesh’s first capacity-building module designed by and for women and adolescent girls affected by climate shocks in coastal regions.

During the floods that affected Noakhali last year, transgender people were among the most excluded from support. Many were turned away from shelters and relief distribution points. Through UNFPA’s emergency response in eastern Noakali, 50 transgender women, including Zara and her peers, received cash assistance to purchase dignity kit items, such as clothing, torch and other essential supplies. Through the GBV Cluster coordination mechanism in Noakhali, UNFPA advocated with the World Food Programme and District Relief and Rehabilitation Office to ensure transgender communities access food assistance, after they were initially excluded from distributions.

“For the first time, we were included,” Zara recalls. “Cash support helped us survive with dignity. It meant we could make our own choices.”

Through UNFPA’s disaster preparedness support, transgender women in Noakhali will receive tailored dignity kits in the event of future disasters, ensuring timely, inclusive and dignified support. 

Despite her optimism and resilience, Zara speaks openly about a painful reality many transgender people face, even in death.

“I bought land for a graveyard for our community,” she says, her voice shaking.

Last year, when a close friend died, Zara and others faced repeated refusals. Her friend was denied the dignified burial and eventually, Zara had to pay a high fee to bury her friend elsewhere.

“That day changed me,” Zara says. “I realized that acceptance may take a long time. If society will not take responsibility for us, even in death, then we must take care of each other.”

Despite being legally recognized as a third gender, the transgender people in Bangladesh continue to be marginalized, still with limited access to education, health care, employment, and even burial.

And yet Zara continues to plan for the future. She is currently enrolled in beauty parlour training and hopes to open her own salon, creating income not only for herself, but for others in her community.

“I want my daughter to grow up seeing strength, not fear,” she says.

Around her, other transgender women are dreaming too. Mahi wants to be trained as a makeup artist. Gopi hopes to open a small shop. Rakhi dreams of starting a poultry farm. Puja wants to build a name for herself in the beauty industry. They are skilled, motivated and ready to contribute.

UNFPA works alongside transgender communities to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights, expand livelihood opportunities and strengthen protection, guided by human rights principles of leaving no one left behind. Following skills training, UNFPA will provide start-up support to help transgender women turn their skills into sustainable livelihoods.

Zara is already a leader. Not because she chose to be extraordinary, but because she refused to disappear.

“Thriving means living with dignity. It means being seen. It means being allowed to dream,” she says. 

And for Zara and her community, those dreams — quietly, steadily — are taking shape.