Spotlight
Jahangirnagar University crisis - mired in a stalemate
Amidst all the commotion at Jahangirnagar University, this issue of the Star Weekend attempts to discern the trajectory of the disaster by sieving it through a chronological timeline, collated from reports published in The Daily Star and other major national newspapers. We start from the reappointment of the VC and take the reader through all that has happened till date, all that has brought this renowned academic institution to a standstill.This timeline is certainly not exhaustive. What it demands of the reader is discernment, analysis and conscious awareness of the ever-persistent, wider issues that these events represent. Where does it all begin, and where does it end? Why should a public university be in such a place to begin with?
East Jurain: Worst place to live in Dhaka?
Ashraful Islam, a retired government official, built a two-story house in Dhaka’s east Jurain neighbourhood in 1996. He spent his forty years of savings and even exhausted his wife’s fixed deposit to build this dwelling.
Stone- Crushers Dying of silicosis, failed by courts
Burimari union, a border village nestling in a nook of the Indian district of Cooch Behar, is a village of stones and stone-crushing yards.
Jamdani: A fabric of then and now
Along the banks of the Sitalakhya river in Narayanganj, some 20 villages in Sonargaon, Rupganj, and Siddhirganj in particular, women villagers starch yarn in lime and toasted rice to make warp yarn—the vertical, lengthwise weaves that make up a fabric.
TERROR RISING
The latest, but probably not the last, victim of this culture of impunity is Abrar Fahad, a second-year student of the electrical and electronic engineering department of Bangladesh University of Science and Technology (BUET).
A long, hard look at our teachers
For months, our public universities have been erupting in protests, with students demanding some very basic things: vice-chancellors who are not corrupt, teachers who cannot bribe their way into the university, student political wings who do not extort or oppress (or murder), effective sexual harassment policies, and freedom of expression.
Youth against fear and injustice
The public universities, old and new, are in quite a sorry state. It seems that these institutions exist only to offer support for the government’s misrule.
The story of Teesta
The story of Teesta begins 23,386 ft above the sea-level at the Pahunri glacier nestled between the Tibet and India border.
An Island Unto Itself
More than 1.4 million* students of Bangladesh study in an education system that has historically kept itself isolated from the rest of the world.
Lost to corruption
The people set afloat by the flash floods of the haor areas are not blaming their luck—or some supreme being. The only omnipotent force they are naming is far nearer, in the Sylhet metropolis and goes by the name of the Water Development Board.
Thinking outside the (white) box
Pristine, paper white walls. Monorail lightings fixed on the ceiling. And reverent silence.
Organising Labour under the Neoliberal Gaze
What are the prospects and limits of conventional modes of organising labour in the garment industry, given the current labour rights regime in
Putting Consumers Last
When Abdullah Shibli Sadiq got a call from an unknown phone number informing him that he would receive a reward of Tk 62,500 from the government, he was astounded.
THE WAR OF FOOTAGE
The footages, along with transcripts of ABC, CBS and NBC prime time news from March 25 to December 25, 1971, perhaps characterise the then US administration's stance on the Liberation War of Bangladesh, and show the response of the powers involved in the war and US media. However, the focus of this short write-up is how these three US television news channels represented the Liberation War in 1971.
Rape does not end with the incident
Sohagi Jahan Tonu, a student from Comilla's Victoria College, was raped and her dead body was dumped in the bushes on March 20, 2016. The incident happened inside the cantonment area where she lived with her family. Her father discovered her dead body.
The Invisible Population
Senwara Begum sits at the door of her small hut with her nine-month-old baby at her breast. She has three other children, but there is nothing in the house to feed them.
Caught Between Dreams and Reality
After three months as a migrant domestic worker in Saudi Arabia, Ejjatun Begum from Barisal realised one thing clearly – she had gotten herself into a trap.