Do not play with our kids future
As school education makes a comeback on the public debate agenda for all the wrong reasons, and none but the Islamic fundamentalists have come out to defend the government yet, here's a message for the Awami League policy makers: Open your eyes, stop substituting BNP-Jamat, act like the secular center left party it meant to be, show some leadership and do not even dare to play opportunistic games with our kids future for short term political greed. It might be of interest for few, but in the long term the social and economic consequences of such selfish practice will be severe, and you'll be judged for that, even long after you're gone.
Bangladesh - Do not legitimize Paedophilia
There is no room for argument, that the child marriage epidemic in Bangladesh is a concern for a leader as ambitious as Seikh Hasina, whose leadership is often praised and seen as pivotal for Bangladesh's success in gender equality and in eradication of poverty.
A miscarriage of justice
A little over a year after being charged with assault and torture of 11-year old domestic worker Mahfuja Akhter Happy, cricketer Shahadat Hossain and his wife Nritto Shahadat are acquitted by judge Tanjila Ismail of a tribunal for prevention of women and children repression in Dhaka.
We must honour our dissenters - An interview with Maryam Namazie
In a personal conversation with Maryam Namzie I shared the story of Mukto-mona, discussed on key global issues what sort of future we envisage.
Talk in Women in Secularism 2016
fuuuuuuu. What an empowering couple of days. I don't know if you guys felt it, but there has been so much power, so much strength in this room! What a diverse, talented and sassy group of women! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk in this event. I will also like to take the opportunity to extend my thanks to Freedom from Religion Foundation and specially CFI and CFI Canada for being my partners in crime for the last 19 months - for helping the threatened Bangladeshi bloggers, secular and gay rights activists. Michael De Dora form CFI, thank you very much, couldn't do it without you and your colleagues.
87% of our women are rape victims - What are we, a nation of rapists?
No human word can explain the pain of being raped by the person whom we love and trust most. Unfortunately, almost all of the Bangladeshi women live through this painful reality, and when I say women, I literally mean our sisters and mothers.
Protest
One evening, I was strolling with friends down the earthen road going beside our village. We heard a commotion coming from a neighbourhood and rushed there straightway. We arrived and saw a young, angry crowd holding tree branches, bamboo sticks and iron rods in their hands, howling. Therefore, it was clear there had been a fight between two villages. Anyway, we entered a house, where many people gathered, to see what was going on there. In a while, a middle-aged man hurried to us and said, "Our boys have held captive a boy from the neighboring village. Now, tell us what to do with the boy, for the crazy boys want to beat him. If he dies due to a severe beating what would become of us!" "Okay, let's go to the room where the boy is confined," I replied, "First, I will meet him and then decide what to do."
The Aberration of Veiling Women
Recently there were two op-ed articles in the Bangladesh-based internet daily, bdnews24.com, on the issue of veiling women. Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country, and veiling of Muslim women is a serious topic there, with increasing number of women there using veils.