House of Cards

Shahana Siddiqui.

Published in Forum on 5 April 2011.

questions the social pressures which keep people bound to unhappy relationships.

Bollywood Badshah and Bangladeshi Loyalists: 39 Years of Freedom and Schizophrenia

Shahana Siddiqui.

Published in the Forum on 3 January 2011.

Sex workers and our moral police

Wasfia Nazreen.

Published in bdnews24 on 13 October 2010.

This piece challenges the hypocritical taboo surrounding sex workers in Bangladesh.

You have 30 minutes to evacuate

Shahana Siddiqui.

Published in the Daily Star on 14 August 2010.

This piece describes the recent slum-eviction in Mahakhali.

Faceblocked

By Fariha Sarawat.

Published in the Daily Star on 2 June 2010.

This piece shows the folly in the government’s recent ‘temporary’ ban on Facebook.

What went wrong with DST?

By Syeed Ahamed.

Published in BDnews24 on 24 March 2010.

This piece explains the rationale and failure of DST.

Sexual harassment and our morals police

by Hana Shams Ahmed.

Published in the Daily Star on 25 February 2010.

This piece discusses paternalistic hypocrisies of our society in the wake of a recent Bangla movie.

Case distortions and social order

Syeed Ahamed

Published in the Daily Star on 4 Sep 2009.

GRADUALLY we are getting used to the initial covering up and subsequent disclosure of criminal cases. Under one government, we learn how an apparent killing or a bomb blast is either just an accident or deep-rooted political conspiracy. And then after the change of government, we learn how the criminal cases were distorted during the previous regime to cover up the truth. From “media created” Bangla bhai to the attack on Humayun Azad, or from the Ramna bombing of 2001 to 21st August 2004 grenade attacks — it’s the same story.

What they aren’t Telling us about Cyclone Aila

Fariha Sarawat

Published in the Star Weekend Magazine on 26 June 2009.

We can’t even find dry place to bury the dead, this is worse than Sidr: a resident of Nolia village remarked. Nolia village is located at the interior of the Khulna delta, in the Sutarkhali union of Dacope upazila, and is among the regions worst affected by Cyclone Aila. We have never seen so much water before, not even in ’88, stranded residents of Nolia village informed us. Making our way into the interiors of the south-western coastal delta of Khulna, much of which now lies inundated in salt water, with plants, fish and vegetation rotting in it, we came across many small villages like Nolia. The sight of dry land and fresh water was an anomaly in our journey.

Violence is not the only way to be heard

Asif Saleh

Published in the Guardian on 13 March 2009.

After the border guards’ mutiny, Bangladeshi politicians have to ensure disgruntled sections of society feel they have a voice.