Gender Diverse Bridal Campaign by Zainah Habib

The inequality existent in our nation, in respect to gender identity, diversity and recognition, bothered Zainah Habib greatly. After completion of her studies, Habib finally decided to do something about it.

"At the beginning, I was rather vocal about the rights of the transgender community in our society. Then I realised, I was not the only one supporting the cause, there were many others with similar convictions. That's when I firmly decided to advance my plans to promote the rights of the distressed; be it the transgender folks who are continuously looked down upon, the plus-sized women who are unnecessarily mocked, or the dusky complexioned girls whose confidence is shattered by the people around her, including loved ones," Habib said.

Based on her concerns, Habib decided to bring all the mentioned categories under a single platform — the wedding dais. She planned on using special models to portray themselves as brides and show the world that they could also look equally beautiful.

"Whenever we discuss a bride, we refer to her as being fair, skinny and tall. Somehow, anything different from the aforementioned adjectives does not represent the typical idea of a 'beautiful bride;' my plan is to shatter the pre-conceived colonial view of the masses regarding feminine beauty.

"I want to show the world that a trans-woman can also be a beautiful bride, the plus-sized next-door neighbour can be stunning, and the dusky girl that we see in our everyday lives can look gorgeous, any given day. Fair and skinny can no longer be the only two qualifiers to defining the term beautiful," she said.

In order to promote her beliefs, and normalise the concept of diversity in beauty, Habib, who owns FlexBiz, which is an online platform that promotes start-ups, established businesses and myriad endeavours and projects, arranged a range of photo-shoots, termed as Gender Diverse Bridal Campaign, to promote the new definitions to beauty.

"At FlexBiz, we rejoice as a community, irrespective of one's gender, class and ethnicity," stated Habib.

Here's to wishing Zainah Habib more strength and courage in bringing many more such unconventional projects to limelight because after all, without respect towards all human beings irrespective of their gender, colour and race; humanity cannot survive.

Photography: Raufun Nur Ratul

Model in this photo: Srabonti Srabon

Campaign Models: Srabonti Srabon, Urmi Rahman Mishti, Aishwariya Ayshe, Mayesha Chowdhury

Makeup: Makeup Fusion by Anfisa Wamik

Wardrobe: Belora by Biva Mosharraf

Jewellery: Zevar by Resma Islam

Accessories: Jhooli by Nasreen S

Location: Ziaur Rahman, The Secret Garden