Maliha Khan

The writer is a graduate of the Asian University for Women with a major in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

Rethinking international aid practices in Bangladesh

While the pandemic was a first in recent times, there has been an international aid system in place for decades now to deal with the fallout of war, hunger, poverty, refugees, and forced displacement.

3y ago

LAILA NUR: A force of resilience

Laila Nur first stood up against the Pakistan government as a schoolgirl of only 15, just about to sit for her SSC exams in 1948.

4y ago

Lost decades in Rohingya camps

Long before August 2017, there were Rohingya refugees who lived in camps in Cox’s Bazar, who had left Myanmar decades ago.

4y ago

A city free of fear: what women voters want

A 21-year-old DU student was raped and tortured in a notoriously dark stretch of the Airport Road in Kurmitola on the evening of January 5. The lone suspect, who was arrested a few days later, had allegedly raped and mugged other women near the spot in the past.

4y ago

The misleading claims

Suu Kyi: Please allow me to clarify the term clearance operation. Its meaning has been distorted. As early as the 1950s has been used against communists. It simply means to clear an area of insurgents or terrorists.

4y ago

THE LAST HUSTLE

The soft light of the setting sun illuminates the entire section every time I walk in, mostly because I AM ALWAYS LATE. On one side white balloons hang, on another side a dart board.

4y ago

“I never start writing until I can hear the voices of the main characters in my head”

I always had a desire to write fiction from school days onwards, but ‘to be a writer’ seemed like an unattainable goal.

5y ago

Lost in documentation

A long-awaited and yet-to-be released ‘Ethno-Linguistic Survey of Bangladesh’ identifies 14 indigenous languages on the verge of extinction. Completed in 2015, this is the first large-scale linguistic survey undertaken in the country since the colonial-era ‘Linguistic Survey of India’ by George Abraham Grierson in 1928.

5y ago
January 12, 2018
January 12, 2018

The Post

So said Katharine Graham, The Washington Post publisher, on the phone to her editors, making a decision that turned out to have historic consequences for the United States and that elevated her paper to national standing.

January 5, 2018
January 5, 2018

Between a rock and a hard place

Groups of Rohingya refugees sit clustered under the trees under the watchful eyes of the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB). Around them are their possessions. Here, they wait.

December 15, 2017
December 15, 2017

Ben Okri: The writer, the artist

“The Magic Lamp” is a collection of 25 short stories by Okri inspired by 25 original paintings by Rosemary Clunie. Okri calls it his “first real unintentional intentional book”, after having been spontaneously inspired by one of Clunie's paintings. Spontaneous, however, may not be entirely accurate.

December 8, 2017
December 8, 2017

Stories from inside Rakhine

For years now, the persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar has been broadcast to the world largely through volunteers who use smartphones to send photos, audio and video clips out to the Rohingya diaspora, larger Muslim community and the world.

December 1, 2017
December 1, 2017

Living with HIV: a fight to the death

Little Akib was in the last stages of advanced AIDS. A boy of 12, he looked six years old and was all skin and bones. He breathed his last on Sunday night. “He was fine this morning, talking and getting ready. I fed him as usual,” said his nani.

October 27, 2017
October 27, 2017

The inequality of Dhaka's roads

Are all roads treated equally by them? Why was the initiative to improve roads, footpaths and drains in the upscale tri-state area prioritised by the incumbent Mayor and the DNCC in their first two years in office?

October 6, 2017
October 6, 2017

Who reads young adult books?

How the young adult genre evolved to gain universal readership

September 29, 2017
September 29, 2017

Swallowed by the river

A flood is a familiar drill for Anwar Hossain. He can't keep track of how many times he has dismantled and moved his house. Of the millions who live on the riverine islands, or chars, in the Jamuna, no one lives in one place for more than a few years.

September 15, 2017
September 15, 2017

Travel, in an era gone by

"From Heaven Lake: Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet" by Vikram Seth is a 1983 travelogue about the author hitch-hiking through China in his student days.

September 8, 2017
September 8, 2017

Stalking victims being failed

In July 2017 alone, 22 females were stalked, one of whom committed suicide due to stalker harassment. A further 14 people were collateral damage for protesting stalking of the victims, of whom two men were killed and 11 people injured. Though females overwhelmingly constitute targets of stalking and sexual harassment, male family members and relatives protesting often too suffer violence at the hands of stalkers.