Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), speaks with Naznin Tithi of The Daily Star.
Dr Badrul Imam, honorary professor at the Department of Geology in the University of Dhaka, talks about the reasons behind the ongoing gas crisis and the possible way out in an exclusive interview with Naznin Tithi of The Daily Star.
Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, former National Project Director of the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) and adjunct faculty at Dhaka University, talks to Naznin Tithi of The Daily Star about the weaknesses of our flood management efforts this year as well as the importance of stronger coordination and better flood forecasting.
Nothing can make the electoral system foolproof because it does not depend fully on the EC
Professor Gitiara Nasreen talks about ways to end the current stalemate in our public universities and the reforms needed to ensure a better educational environment with The Daily Star.
Zonayed Saki, chief coordinator of Ganosamhati Andolon, talks with The Daily Star about the current political situation of the country.
Our society still considers violence against women to be a women's issue and holds the view that only women should talk about it or protest it.
Questions have been raised by road safety activists as to whether a human life can be valued at only Tk 5 lakh.
Last year when the news of Rohingya women giving birth in no man's land along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border first surfaced in the media, I heard many men glorifying such births which took place out in the open without any assistance from any birth attendants. They were comparing the Rohingya women's experiences of childbirth with that of our urban women, who can afford quality maternity care during their pregnancy and give birth at quality
There has hardly been any news in the media about the ongoing HSC examinations that started on April 2. And that's probably good news.
While the BCS examinees and students of various public universities and colleges across the country have been demonstrating on the streets demanding reforms in the existing quota system in Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examinations, some groups of freedom fighters' children have also been protesting, but clearly, for the opposite reason.
DEVASTATION IN THE WAKE OF FLOODS
AS we look back at the previous year which saw an increase of violence against children we must take a vow to play our part to make 2018 a better year for children. It is really hard to drive away our frustration at our collective failure to protect our children from the various forms of abuse that they have to suffer on a regular basis.
First, I have been a human rights and political activist for the last 29 years. I can't call myself a human rights defender and turn my back on my own country's genocide, like most human rights defenders in Myanmar are doing today.
A teenage girl named Zannat used to come to our house in Mirpur occasionally to help my mother with household work, some six or seven years ago.
One of my teachers at college would often say, “Even if you take a walk through a (public) university campus, you will learn many things about life.”
According to Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum, a total of 494 children were raped in the eight months from January till August this year—among them 58 were gang-raped. According to their statistics, 37 disabled children were raped during this time, while 46 were victims of attempted rape.
The photo in the newspaper, of a baby girl born a few days ago at Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia makes me marvel at how beautiful she is; but the next moment I remember the reality she has been born into—what the future holds for her, what her mother had to go through while fleeing her own country and whether she too, will have to face hunger, disease and emotional trauma.
