Tanvir Mokammel's films
Mr Faruqe Hasan requests, in his "Appeal to Tanvir Mokammel" (Daily Star, 12th September) that Mr. Mokammel desist from showing films portraying darker aspects of our country to the international audience, as it would damage our national image. Unfortunately, this is a flawed argument. If we are unable to resolve some very basic human rights issues ourselves (eg treatment of minorities, religious freedom, corruption, political violence etc) we deserve a negative image, just as we deserve a positive image for our successes (population control, womens' microcredit projects, flood control etc). Whether we are prepared to admit or not, internal pressure has not worked in eliminating these ills of our society. Remember that it is only after international pressure that the government had to take action against some extremist groups recently, after denying their existence for so many years.
Mr. Mokammel's films do not portray our country as a bad place - they show the fundamental goodness of our people, but lament our inability to overcome larger forces such as governments with bad intentions.
We should protest injustice everywhere. Should we stay out of the debate on Iraq and Palestine and ask people from those countries not to show negative images of Israel or occupation forces in Iraq outside those countries?
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