Fifty years ago, on this very day, India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced her government’s decision to formally accord recognition to Bangladesh as a sovereign and an independent state.

During the rule of HM Ershad (from March 24, 1982 till December 6, 1990), the phrase “Ershad Vacation” used to be widely used.

Nothing that I have to say in this article in criticism of the failures in government policy is new or clever. It is merely the umpteenth rehashing of the anger and frustration that the women of Bangladesh feel every day, both in public and in private.

The World Trade Organization was supposed to meet this week to consider a proposal that has been languishing for the past year:

In 1920, American poet Robert Frost mused: “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.” Frost held “with those who favour fire.”

Chattogram, the country’s second largest city and home to its main sea port, with an estimated population of 52 lakh people, has been suffering from serious water-logging and drainage issues for a long time.

On November 13, 2021, the two-week 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, ended in Scotland with the participating nations agreeing upon the Glasgow Climate Pact.

We find ourselves at the outro to yet another year, and the world has to keep reminding itself, like a broken record, that all of this violence against women must stop.

Sudip Das, a person with visual disability, has always aspired to join the judicial service of the country. He obtained LLB (Honours) degree in 2014 and LLM in 2016, from the Department of Law at Chittagong University, and since then has been diligently trying to enter the judicial service.

Shoshi (not her real name) runs an online business on Facebook. This means having to deal with unwanted messages from men on a regular basis.

The theme of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities this year is “Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-Covid-19 world.”

Professor Rafiqul Islam was a writer, linguist, researcher and an educationist. He was the first Nazrul professor and director of Nazrul Research Institute at the Bangla department of Dhaka University (DU).

It has been 24 years since the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Peace Accord was signed, yet the situation in the region is still overwhelmingly fragile.

According to a study conducted by Nirapad Sarak Chai, a road safety movement led by actor and activist Ilias Kanchan, based on reports published by different media outlets, as many as 4,092 road accidents took place across Bangladesh in 2020, taking 4,969 lives and injuring 5,058 more people.

Twenty five years ago, on June 12, 1996, Kalpana Chakma, organising secretary of the Hill Women’s Federation, was abducted in the dead of the night.

Selina Bahar Zaman left the mortal world on December 1, 2004 at the age of 64. She, along with her mother Anwara Bahar Chowdhury, played an active role in the cultural manifestations of Bulbul Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA) in the 1960’s.

If I had to pick only one trait of my own that I admire, it would have to be my ability to adapt.

It was a bright sunny morning in Vientiane, where I was visiting during the first week of December 2017.

The first conference of top national security officials of eight Asian countries on crisis-hit Afghanistan, hosted by India on November 10, sent out an important message relating to the need for preventing the war-torn country from becoming a safe haven for global terrorism once again, for an inclusive government, and an unhindered supply of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.

The tragic road accident and the unfortunate death of Nayeem Hasan, a student of Notre Dame College, on November 24, sparked protests as fellow students took to the streets of Dhaka yet again. They demanded a speedy trial of the accused, compensation for the family, strict traffic laws, etc.