When children face adversity, mothers experience their deepest fears. Fathers respond in their own way. July 2024 witnessed all of this, as it was also a month that reshaped the way families looked at protest and resistance.

It’s been barely a year since July 2024, yet it feels like an eternity. The smoke clouding the sky, the gunshots, the sounds heard across the country — all seem like distant memories. However, no matter how fleeting our minds are, the collective conscience of the nation remembers the martyrs — brave individuals who sacrificed their lives so that we can have a country that is fair and just.

There’s a silence that settles in when the shouting ends and when the camera finally rests. But for the photojournalists who stood in the eye of July’s storm, that silence is anything but peaceful. These are not just men with cameras. They are the reluctant custodians in a country where truth is often unwelcome.

While the July Uprising was sparked by economic problems, political repression, and a desire for democracy, it found a strong and surprising voice in a new form of music for Bangladesh: rap. Two songs, “Kotha Ko” (Speak Up) and “Awaz Utha” (Raise Your Voice), came to represent the sentiment of the movement in July.

In July 2024, Bangladesh’s youth-led quota protests ignited a powerful cultural uprising, using chants as political weapons to challenge authoritarianism, reclaim identity, and reshape national memory through a new language of resistance and unity.

In Bangladesh, authoritarianism began with a knock on a dorm room door.