Are we backtracking on our commitment to gender equality?
The interim government needs to quickly set an agenda that reaffirms its commitment to upholding women's rights.
18 November 2024, 10:00 AM
A nation's need for soul searching
We have done the unthinkable—bring down a dictator—only to realise that the fascism within the body politic—and within ourselves—is much harder to dislodge than a once-invincible regime. If we are to do better as a nation than we have in the past, we must do the hard work of looking inwards and collectively figuring out the root causes of our dispossession and deprivation.
5 October 2024, 17:58 PM
In conversation with Syeda Rizwana Hasan: ‘It’s been most challenging to reach those marooned in Feni’
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser to the environment ministry, speaks with The Daily Star about the ongoing floods.
22 August 2024, 11:52 AM
Did we have to pay such a heavy price for this verdict?
The verdict is in. The Appellate Division through its observations has recommended that quotas be restricted to seven percent: five percent for freedom fighters’ descendants, one percent for ethnic minorities, and one percent for people with disabilities.
21 July 2024, 18:00 PM
Geof Wood: 'I feel my identity is tied up with Bengal'
Geof Wood talks to Sushmita S Preetha of The Daily Star about his latest book, in which he explores the dilemmas of being an academic immersed in the processes of development and the intersection between policymaking and activism.
11 February 2024, 01:00 AM
The violence of silencing a rape survivor
That justice for rape survivors is a mirage in this country is no news, with a miserable conviction rate of three percent in rape cases.
3 February 2024, 02:00 AM
‘Human rights obligations are not an imposition from the outside’
UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression Irene Khan speaks with The Daily Star about the recent general election, shrinking space for dissent, and the pressing need to address human rights concerns in Bangladesh.
13 January 2024, 02:00 AM
Struggling to be gracious hosts
A year ago, when tens of thousands of destitute Rohingya, fleeing systematic violence in Rakhine State, had arrived at the outskirts of the small tourist town of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, locals had opened up their hearts and their homes to their “Muslim brothers and sisters” from neighbouring Myanmar.
1 September 2018, 18:00 PM
Ethical challenges of documenting Birangonas
There is a need for a descriptive narrative as opposed to a simplistic narrative. The Fhuljaan story is a clear example. Also the issue of anonymity vs confidentiality—do we anonymise these accounts or keep it confidential or publicise these names? I went for anonymising, but many of these women said, "these are my words, why isn’t my name there?"
17 September 2017, 18:00 PM
The myth of the 8-hour work day
Banu Begum, a 38-year-old garment worker, leaves home at 7.30 in the morning, drops off her two daughters at a nearby madrasa and then walks to her factory a few kilometres away.
4 May 2017, 18:00 PM
Mental Health - Living with the ghost of Rana Plaza
People tell her she is lucky to be alive, to have escaped the “clutches of death”. They tell her to “count her blessings” for making it out of the rubble that was once Rana Plaza, with her limbs intact. They remind her of all those who didn't share her fate.
20 April 2017, 18:00 PM
THE MESSENGER
1971, for families torn apart or displaced by the war, was a time of profound uncertainty, of not knowing where or how their loved ones were, of waiting for news – any news – good or bad.
23 March 2017, 18:00 PM
The devil in development
The word “development” - eliciting as it does grandiloquent notions of progress - has become, at least in Bangladesh, something of a red herring.
3 August 2016, 18:00 PM
“Is the Forest Department to be a landlord without any responsibilities?”
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association's (BELA) chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan talks to Sushmita S Preetha of The Daily
6 June 2016, 18:00 PM
If our democracy could talk, what would it say?
When people resist what the government would like to wholesale, impose, or force-feed as “development”, democracy seems quite at ease to quell people's resistances, violate pledges and dismiss the age-old demands of the adivasi communities.
1 June 2016, 18:00 PM
Who says we're not free?
Last week, Freedom House, an independent watchdog organisation that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom...
2 May 2016, 18:00 PM
When only men make the news
On the onset, it seems women are everywhere in the media. You switch on the TV, there is inevitably an attractive woman luring you
19 April 2016, 18:00 PM
A lesson on lessons not learnt
Eleven years ago, on a hot, stuffy day not unlike today, a building had come crashing down on the sweating workers of a sweater factory.
10 April 2016, 18:00 PM
What do we celebrate when we celebrate 'special' days?
We are quite happy, thank you very much, to superficially engage with an issue and then sweep it under the rug as soon as the day is over.
2 March 2016, 18:00 PM
In the land of the Bangalis
AS we celebrate another Amar Ekushey, we remind ourselves of the importance of language in forming and defining our identities. We
20 February 2016, 18:00 PM
You can't pass a donkey as a horse!
AT the risk of sounding “anti-growth” and “anti-exports” – and heck, of damaging the “image” of the country (because, apparently,
17 February 2016, 18:00 PM
Whose city is it, anyway?
The impassioned descriptions all collide against, but dissolve into each other – the past, present and future, stories of pain, aspiration, fear and anger compete against each other to be heard.
27 January 2016, 18:00 PM
A fifteen-year-old wait
We must confront the uncomfortable truth that beyond paying lip-service to the “ideals of secularism and tolerance” (if that!), we have done precious little to show we care about the Hindu population of this country.
12 January 2016, 18:00 PM
Breaking of spirits and bones
Forty-four years since independence, must we remain a caricature of a dysfunctional, postcolonial state where law enforcers...
9 December 2015, 18:00 PM
Do we really remember?
We have been taught contradictory versions of history that are outright lies at worst and simplistic at best, to the extent that we now either disavow the atrocities of the Liberation War or use “Muktijuddher Chetona” as a pretext for justifying repressive measures and silencing dissent.
25 November 2015, 18:00 PM
Is the parliament above question?
Wouldn't any criticism against the government or any form of dissent then be reason enough to have an NGO's registration cancelled? In addition, going by Sengupta's comments, are we to accept that the TIB – and by corollary, any other NGO – can never make a comment on the parliament?
19 November 2015, 18:00 PM
WOMEN WAGING PEACE
When she first landed in earthquake-ridden Haiti, Rockfar Sultana Khanam, commander of the first ever all-female UN peacekeeping
13 November 2015, 18:00 PM